Enshoku's Weblog

The US invades sweden

2009-03-03T23:09:00.004-05:00

...The Swedish legal system anyways. The pirate bay, a Swedish run torrent hosting website has been sued by Hakan Roswell, who is filing for the USA's very own MPAA under the premise that the pirate bay has allowed over 600,000 Swedes access to illegal copies of movies.

Unlike most of the pirate bay's supporters, I do not approve of piracy. They may justify it by saying that they are fighting cooperate greed, but illegally downloading and using files you don't own is not the way to do it. My main problem in this case is the fact that the morons pushing the lawsuit are shooting the messenger. The pirate bay and torrenting works like this:

Person A goes to thepiratebay.com and uses the search function. He downloads torrent X directly from the pirate bay. He then uses a program downloaded onto his hard drive to open the torrent file. Once it is open, the torrent program will locate any other peers using the same torrent, and begin to transmit the data to person X.

Nothing about torrenting is inherently illegal, nor are the files inherently illegal. Claiming that the pirate bay is an accomplice to over 600,000 cases of copyright infringement is like claiming that the US postal service is guilty of over 100,000 cases of copyright infringement because people have mailed burned cd's to each other via the post office. The system is a completely legal and valid one, and is being used for illegal purposes, unlike something like napster, which hosted actual illegal media on its website, and gave it away. Suing the pirate bay makes about as much sense as suing google, and I know people use google to find torrents because the suggested search toolbar almost always lists +torrent after any movie title I google.

They can't sue the real criminals in this case, because the real criminals are average joes with average lives, and lawsuits would be ineffective due to the tens of millions of criminals this system has produced. Ripping a file you don't own may make you a prick and a criminal, but your actions have nothing to do with the pirate bay. They simply hold files that connect you to kind criminal pricks who are willing to send you pieces of the illegal file.

Welcome to teh intarwebs my friend, the ride get much scarier from here on in...

Gangs; Everyone has them

2009-02-21T18:43:00.002-05:00

...In the US, we have the blood and crips, in Japan they are the yakuza, the chinese have various triad rings, and the Sicilians have the various mafia families. So in a case of gang against gang, clan against clan, ring against ring, family against family, where does Nigeria fit in? How about religion vs. religion?

BAUCHI, Nigeria (AP) — Rioters burned homes, churches and mosques in a central Nigerian town Saturday, when violence flared after Muslims parked their cars in front of a church, a Red Cross official said. Four people were killed and 35 injured.

Adamu Abubakar, head of Bauchi's Red Cross branch, said the clashes followed an argument between Christians and Muslims the previous day.

The army and police had deployed in the part of town where the clashes occurred and the situation had calmed, Abubakar said.

Bauchi lies along a line splitting Nigeria's predominantly Muslim and pastoralist northern population from southern Christian and animist farming communities.

While both groups live peacefully in crowded cities across Nigeria, they intermingle most closely in this fertile, hilly "middle belt," where an intense struggle for resources is under way. Northern herdsmen have historically needed pasture lands for their far-roaming flocks, while agrararian southerners want to grow corn.

Tensions in the region often find an outlet in ethnic and religious violence, which is intertwined with identities related to lifestyles. In November, over 300 people were killed in sectarian clashes in neighboring Jos.

I find this odd as hell. If there was one true religion, than why is the religious divide by ethnicity instead of by something such as kindness? I'd figure that if Islam was the true religion, no one would be bombing churches, and if the Christians had it right than Jesus's spirit would stop them from blowing the fuck out of the buildings of the innocent and simpleminded heretics. As this story develops I expect to hear the Christians yell "NOT TRUE CHRISTIANS™".

The ten oddest google searches that lead here

2009-02-06T05:51:00.002-05:00

The goddess of blogger Google occasionally will bless me with traffic. However, there are some google searches that just make you turn your side to the side and try reading it again, to see if its more parsable that way. I present to you my ten favorite google searches that lead back to my website:

#10
---
"baseball bats for prices you wouldn't believe"
to paraphrase bing "Enshoku's weblog, you source for baseball bats for prices you wouldn't believe."

#9
---
"articles on how to persuade someone to dump you"
Don't ask me on this one, as that seems a bit random even for my blog.

#8
---
"fagbastards exposed"
For everyone reading, I would like to point out I have yet to, nor will I ever put naked pictures of Ted haggard on this blog.

#7
---
"iblp spank"
What in the heck? Is this meant to imply that I'm sadistic towards those in bible colleges...Okay maybe a little.

#6
---
"my wife is egotistical"
Why would anyone google that, and more importantly, why would google send them my way?

#5
---
"would be some of the problems people would have like nobody likes me, i have no friends etc"
Get a cat. Preferably one about to be euthanized.

#4
---
"why is it wrong to kill Christians if it will send them to eternal life"
Because that is murder, and murder is bad. I hope to god this guy was just bored and isn't actually contemplating shooting up his local church or something, as that would be very bad.

#3
---
"black people are riot prone"
This one had very little to with with me actually, as I think they may have been looking for HJHOP, where bing wrote an article of the same name: Link

#2
---
"if you are prayer will stop the black hole won't destroy the earth"
I think this is supposed to read "If you pray, it will stop the black hole from destroying the earth" which is referring to the LHC article I wrote.
[side note: Haha, I win, and we are all still alive]

#1
---
"Twilight Princess is satanic"
Oh bugger off. The game may have been a bit lame, but it was far from satanic. Hell, I wouldn't even consider resident evil satanic, and RE is one of the most occult having, demon fighting, nightmare giving games ever.

From baseball bats to euthanized cats,
Gay preachers and sunday school teachers,
Black holes and black wholes,
crazy wives and killing with knives,
and getting a elfish swordsman to dump you.

My abortion is the only moral abortion

2009-01-27T15:44:00.002-05:00

For all of you carrying around irony meters, please turn the sensitivity down on them. If not they may explode after reading this little gem. Tales of pro-life ladies and abortion clinic protesters happily hiring hitman doctors to slay their innocent babies, and being a prick to the hitman while doing it. To show what I mean lets turn to a Colorado baby slicer:

"Recently, we had a patient who had given a history of being a 'pro-life' activist, but who had decided to have an abortion. She was pleasant to me and our initial discussion was mutually respectful. Later, she told someone on my staff that she thought abortion is murder, that she is a murderer, and that she is murdering her baby. So before doing her procedure, I asked her if she thought abortion is murder -- the answer was yes. I asked her if she thought I am a murderer, and if she thought I would be murdering her baby, and she said yes. But murder is a crime, and murderers are executed. Is this a crime? Well, it should be, she said. At that point, she became angry and hostile, and the summary of the conversation was that she regarded me as an abortion-dispensing machine, and how dare I ask her what she thinks. After explaining to her that I do not perform abortions for people who think I am a murderer or people who are angry at me, I declined to provide her with medical care. I do not know whether she found someone else to do her abortion." (Physician, Colorado)

Yes he actually had the gall to say that he wasn't an abortion giving machine. The nerve of these people, blatantly lying like that. These abortionists need to grow some balls and learn to to stand up for their real beliefs, namely killing everything that isn't born yet.

David Icke vs the reptoid army: Can the cats kill the jews?

2009-01-15T18:00:00.008-05:00

For those of you who've never heard the name David Icke, he is a rather notable conspiracy theorist. He isn't one of those boring theorists who likes to yell "government did 9/11, free mason NWO !1!1!!!11!!!1", David Icke is polite, confident, and batshit insane. Believe it or not, the man actually believes that nearly all of the world's jews are actually reptoids. If you clicked that link are already calling poe or bullshit, I'm afraid you are horribly wrong. David Icke believes that the only real Jews left are the Arabs who are battling the reptoid Israelites for the gaza strip.

To elaborate more on what the reptoids are and what their goal is, they are reptilian humanoids who hail from Alpha Draconis. They are using mass media and wars to completely mindfuck us and control us, and they eventually want us to to be their slave-puppets. In a case of "you got your sci-fi in my conspiracy theory", they call this the new world order, and 9/11 was most definitely involved. Obama comes in somewhere too, but shockingly he actually isn't a reptoid! Instead he seems to be one of their puppets, and he is hope-nitizing us all (hypotizing with hope).

Surely after hearing all this you must be ready to call bullshit, or think that "no-one is moronic to believe this crap, right?"...wrong. David Icke has nearly as many fans as rael does, and he didn't even have to establish an (official) religion to do it. Apparently they are so common that not even the horrors of the fast food drive through can help you avoid them. Below is a anecdote from Cliff Hendroval (via Pharyngula):

So this morning I'm in the drive-through line at my local McDonald's. I always have to turn off the radio there because of interference, my a/c is broken so my windows are open, and the person at the window three cars ahead must have made some sort of special order because no one's moving. From the pick-up truck behind me I start hearing someone yelling. As I start to focus a little, I figure out that he's apparently yelling at me, or more specifically, the faded Kerry/Edwards '04 sticker in my back window. Great, I think, a goddam wingnut, and I haven't even gotten my coffee yet.

After a moment, though, he also starts yelling about Bush and Skull and Bones, about Geronimo, and that Prescott Bush was a Nazi and that the CIA was founded by Nazis. The CIA controls all the banks. There were no planes on 9/11 - Bush blew the WTC up himself. The people who call themselves Jews aren't Jews - they're descendants of the Khazars. They're all Zionists, and they're trying to kill all the few remaining Jews, the real descendants of Shem, whom the media calls Palestinians. Those Hasidim who live up on the other side of town? All Zionists. I'm a real patriot. Ron Paul is gonna put us back on a real financial basis and get us away from the Bilderbergers and Freemasons. He's a real patriot, like me. I know what the real truth is. I've studied these things. You know why people like JFK and Diana have torches on their graves - that means the Illuminati took 'em out and are bragging about it...

At this point, I can't hold my silence anymore, because whenever someone mentions Diana in one of these conspiracy rants, it means one thing.

I yelled back at him, "So you actually believe that the Queen of England is a seven-foot tall lizard?"

He's taken aback for a second, then says in a much lower, but still audible voice, "Get a cat." That had me puzzled for a moment, and then he said "Cats hate reptiles. Cats are reptiles' natural enemies". So I guess he was letting me know how I could figure out who was a giant lizard and who wasn't. At that moment the logjam at the take-out window finally broke and I was able to get my coffee and go.

Now at this point you must be imagining that Cliff is making stuff up, but once again...the craziness checks out. The reptoids apparently fear mirrors and cats. They also are afraid of the people that can detect them with psychic powers, which seems to be almost every reptoid believer that is alive. So lets compile a list of how many conspiracies and woo are meshed together here:

the illunimati
9/11 wasn't done by the government
the Jews are secretly evil
the bohemian grove
new world order stories
humans have psychic powers
angels exist and are at war with demons
the reptoids are the current jews and biblical demons
there was once a galactic war in the milkyway
Barack Obama is the ultimate reptoid puppet
reptoid spirits can invade your body and control you

it goes on and on, but to simplify it, take the craziest conspiracy theorist you can think of and combine him/her with the craziest Pentecostal preacher you can think of and add reptoids. Mix it together and you have an army of men who ride upon kitty cats with mirrored armor. So how did this giant woo-fest get so popular? Its actually because most of the believers seem to have an odd combination of open-mindedness and paranoia. Over time, more and more conspiracy theorists added more to the melting pot, and the ideas are being added and passed on even now. The creepiest part of it all is that the more ideas that are added, the larger Icke's group becomes, and the larger the group becomes, the more ideas that get added.

Yikes.

Kitteh jebus insalts teh chirstainz!!!!! srsly.

2009-01-08T19:17:00.002-05:00

Disclaimer : for all you humans out there, I'd like to inform you that this article is written in lolcat. If you cannot read the language of lolcat please scroll halfway down to read the human version, srsly. kthxbai.
----
i has resently fallen bak in luv wif teh bible, moar specifically teh lolcat bible. dose cute an cuddly lil kittehs tell teh bible in their own language, lolcat language. it wud appear dat sum christianz find teh idea ov kitteh jebus an kitteh ceilin cat offensiv howevr. y iz whenevr yahweh gets made out 2 be an 8 foot tall frellin ninja lion, christianz luv it? or when jebus iz made out 2 be indestructible harbingr ov frellin death til teh wurld iz nice, y do they luv instead ov loathin? i suppose ceilin cat symbolizin iz only evil if u mak teh ceilin cat cute instead ov badas. howevr, im ramblin, so lets git 2 teh point ov teh post...

oh noez! blesfamy

i honestly didnt knoe dat anyone cud say teh werd blasfemy dat mutch. grantd, teh intarwebz appears 2 confuzzle most ov thees christianz, but im honestly wonderin whethr sum ov them hate their own bible. teh akshul mesage ov teh lolcat bible iz teh same, teh language iz jus changd an teh humanz become kats. 4 dose ov u 2 lazy 2 click teh link, her r teh bestest quotez:

an, comin soon, biblez written in pig latin, smurfees, klingon, an vulcan. (teh last wan will be gud 4 prosperity preachers, hoo r always quotin spockz "liv long an prospr" meme. but i digres.)
dis ar teh filthy, disgustin, blasfemous, an an uttr abominashun. an anyone hoo buys wan ov thees iz sharin in thees peeps sins.
-
2 reduce teh bible 2 lolspeak iz not merely offensiv, but petty. it speakz ov absolutely no reverence 4 da bible or itz author.

iz stoopid, iz blasfemous, an it be cheap attempt 2 pandr 2 teh current markit fad.
-
teh only ting dis "bible" wud be gud 4 iz 2 line teh kitteh-littr box wif!
-
i doan git dis at all! "kitteh speek"? wut kind ov nutcase came up wif dis blasfemy?
-
referrin 2 ceilin cat as "ceilin kat" iz an insult in da extreme: http://icanhascheezburger.com/kategory/ceilin/
look at teh fifth entry down--but i doan recommend it 4 da sensitiv.

i knoe they arent as tooth an claw-ish as teh quotez in mah last post, but i still lovd them. also, wan ov teh christianz left cute sarcastic comment worth menshun

nao, iz dis offishul "kitteh-speek?" cuz i read dis 2 mah 2 kats an they didnt git it.
gud wan bout rick warren. we all knoe we ned 2 do anythin posible 2 git kats in church. if we had "mouse speek" bible, thar mite be problem.

i luv sarcasm dun rite. anothr reason im postin dis ar teh so i can both add it 2 mah linkz list, an so i can halp teh push 2 git teh book publishd (if it doez git publishd, im buyin teh damnd ting. genesis 1 alone makez it worth it).

push it, push it gud!
---
LOL NOTICE!!!
tis is teh hooman vershun. it lyk has no cheeseburgers. srsly.
/LOL NOTICE
---
I've recently fallen back in love with the bible, more specifically the lolcat bible. Those cute and cuddly little kittys tell the bible in their own language, lolcat language. It would appear that some Christians find the idea of kitty Jesus and kitty god offensive however. Why is it whenever Yahweh gets made out to be an 8 foot tall frelling ninja lion, Christians love it? Or when Jesus is made out to be a indestructible harbinger of frelling death until the world is nice, why do they love instead of loathing? I suppose god symbolizing is only evil if you make the god cute instead of badass. However, I am rambling, so lets get to the point of the post...

OH NOEZ! BLESSPHAMY

I honestly didn't know that anyone could say the word blasphemy that much. Granted, the intarwebz appears to confuzzle most of these Christians, but I'm honestly wondering whether some of them hate their own bible. The actual message of the lolcat bible is the same, the language is just changed and the humans become cats. For those of you too lazy to click the link, here are the bestest quotes:

And, coming soon, Bibles written in Pig Latin, Smurfese, Klingon, and Vulcan. (The last one will be good for prosperity preachers, who are always quoting Spock's "Live long and prosper" meme. But I digress.)
This is filthy, disgusting, blasphemous, and an utter abomination. And anyone who buys one of these is sharing in these people's sins.
-
To reduce the Bible to Lolspeak is not merely offensive, but petty. It speaks of absolutely NO reverence for the Bible or its Author.

It's stupid, it's blasphemous, and it's a cheap attempt to pander to the current market fad.
-
The only thing this "Bible" would be good for is to line the kitty-litter box with!
-
I don't get this at all! "Kitty speak"? What kind of nutcase came up with this blasphemy?
-
Referring to God as "Ceiling Cat" is an insult in the extreme: http://icanhascheezburger.com/category/ceiling/
Look at the fifth entry down--but I don't recommend it for the sensitive.

I know they aren't as tooth and claw-ish as the quotes in my last post, but I still loved them. Also, one of the Christians left a cute sarcastic comment worth mention

Now, is this official "Kitty-Speak?" because I read this to my two cats and they didn't get it.
Good one about Rick Warren. We all know we need to do anything possible to get cats in church. If we had a "Mouse Speak" Bible, there might be a problem.

I love sarcasm done right. Another reason I'm posting this is so I can both add it to my links list, and so I can help the push to get the book published (if it does get published, I'm buying the damned thing. genesis 1 alone makes it worth it).

push it, push it good!

Christian fundamentalists are actually quite kind and respectul...

2009-01-06T08:59:00.002-05:00

...at least compared to the republican fundamentalists. When I heard of the website the free republic, I imagined it was just the republican version of the democratic underground, where a bunch of moderate republicans fapped each others beliefs off. What I found instead makes me wonder whether humanity has even a chance of survival in the long run. The website is filled with some of the most inane, moronic, and asshatish things I've ever heard, from racism, to sexism, to blind patriotism, to Fred Phelpsism...its all there. Just so that I can spread the suffering I've endured, here are a few quotes from the "freepers":

CHANGE- the post modern euphemism for Marxist revolution.

Dems, Libs, Socialists, Call 'em what you will, they ALL have Fairies livin' in their Trees.

If someone lives in CA, CO, CT, DC, DE, FL, HI, IA, IL, IN, MA, MD, MI, MN, NC, NH, NM, NJ, NV, NY, OH, OR, PA, RI, WA, VT, WA, or WI then it is fair to assume that the are anti american

Obama is living proof that stupid people should not be allowed to vote.

Global warming is to science what Islam is to religion

All I needed to know about islam I learned on 9-11

See what 50 years of liberal TV propaganda gets ya....hope I live long enough to see the next Civil War, and healthy enough to participate.

We have now enfranchised all of the groups that the Founders (looking to history and why Republics fall) warned us against; non freeholders, women, children under 21, felons, and imbeciles.

Peace is not an option

The novelty of electing the first black president will wear off. I don't know if the Magic Negro Effect will wear off though.

Obama is the first Affirmative Action president and conservatives need to make sure he's the last because this country may not continue its present existence as the home of the free. It's going be either Marxism or Islamofascism conquering this country.

Hey algore...You'll have to pry the steering wheel of my 317 HP V8 truck from my cold dead hands

American politics has truly sunk: an inexperienced hack is going to be President and a second-rate comedy writer will be a Senator. America, you get what you deserve.

I wouldn't be surprised if by that time term limits were abolished for the Presidency and Obama was made our permanent ruler and the Dems take over both Senate and House and forbid any more elections.

They all need a bat upside their teeth a couple of times to knock some sense into them.

Trust in God, Question everyone else
-----------
and to end on a bit of brilliant truth..."Disclaimer: I have a right to be stupid and wrong. Please don't legislate that right from me."

If your brains haven't been melted yet, just think about this... all of these quotes were taken from a single forum thread. What in the hell is wrong with these people, and how is it possible for anyone to be that caustic?

Happy new year's everyone!

2009-01-01T22:52:00.003-05:00

At least for another hour and 7 minutes at least. Since pink eye has just recently exploded around my general area, I'm avoiding contact with any human life until Monday. I'm sorry to say that I couldn't be as active in the war on new years day as I was in Christmas, but it all flew by far too fast.I hope you had a good one, and that none of you wake up with really bad hangovers...unless you deserve it, then I hope your head hurts like hell.

On a side note: Does anyone know where I can find the mp3 for the Westboro church's song "santa claus will rake you to hell"? The song is ironically hilarious, and while the Phelps clan members may be ugly as hell, they don't make a bad choir.

To all of you devious Christian anti-gay boycotters

2008-12-31T08:46:00.003-05:00

To all of you devious Christian anti-gay boycotters out there, I have a list that will make remembering which of those ebil pro-gay companies are to be avoided. You don't have to take my word for it either, as this list was compiled by those awesome true Christians™ at world nut daily. This list is comprised of 259 different companies that scored a perfect 100% on Fred Phelps's gaydar. If you as a true Christian™ dare to purchase even a photocopy from these companies, that means that you are actively helping the gays to take over the country and sodomize every little man whom is not within 10 feet of a catholic priest. Without further ado, I present the companies that Hitler does all his shopping at:

link to WND

1. 3M Co.
2. AAA Northern California, Nevada and Utah
3. Abercrombie & Fitch
4. Accenture Ltd.
5. Aetna
6. Agilent Technologies
7. Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld
8. Alaska Airlines
9. Alcatel-Lucent
10. Allianz Life Insurance Co. of North America
11. Allstate Corp.
12. Alston & Bird
13. American Express
14. Ameriprise Financial
15. American Airlines
16. Anheuser-Busch Companies
17. Aon Corp.
18. Apple
19. Arent Fox LLP
20. Arnold & Porter
21. AT&T
22. Bain & Co.
23. Baker & Daniels LLP
24. Bank of America
25. Bank of New York Mellon Corp.
26. Barnes & Noble
27. BASF
28. Bausch & Lomb
29. Best Buy
30. Bingham McCutchen
31. BMC Software
32. Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals
33. Boeing
34. Borders
35. Boston Consulting Group
36. BP America
37. Bright Horizons Family Solutions
38. Brinker International
39. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co
40. Brown Rudnick
41. Bryan Cave
42. Campbell Soup Co.
43. Capital One
44. Cardinal Health
45. Cargill
46. Carlson Companies
47. Carmax
48. Charles Schwab
49. Chevron
50. ChoicePoint
51. Chrysler
52. Chubb
53. Cisco Systems
54. Citigroup
55. Clear Channel Communications
56. Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton
57. Clifford Chance US LLP
58. Clorox
59. CNA Insurance
60. Coca-Cola
61. Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc.
62. Constellation Energy Group Inc.
63. Continental Airlines
64. Coors
65. Corning
66. Covington & Burling LLP
67. Cox Enterprises
68. Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP
69. Credit Suisse
70. Cummins
71. Debevoise & Plimpton LLP
72. Dell
73. Deloitte & Touche
74. Deutsche Bank
75. Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP
76. Diageo North America
77. Dickstein Shapiro
78. DLA Piper
79. Dorsey & Whitney
80. Dow Chemical
81. DuPont
82. Eastman Kodak
83. eBay Inc.
84. Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge LLP
85. Electronic Arts
86. Eli Lilly & Co.
87. Ernst & Young
88. Estee Lauder
89. Esurance
90. Faegre & Benson
91. Fannie Mae
92. Foley & Lardner
93. Foley Hoag
94. Ford
95. Freescale Semiconductor
96. Fried, Frank, Haris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP
97. GameStop
98. Gap
99. Genentech
100. General Motors
101. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
102. GlaxoSmithKline
103. Hyatt
104. Goldman Sachs
105. Google
106. Harrah's
107. Hartford Financial Services
108. Harvard Pilgrim Health Care
109. Haynes and Boone LLP
110. Heller Ehrman
111. Herman Miller
112. Hewitt Associates
113. Hewlett-Packard
114. Hoffman-La Roche Inc.
115. Holland & Knight
116. Honeywell International
117. Hospira
118. Howrey LLP
119. HSBC USA
120. Husch Blackwell Sanders LLP
121. IndyMac Bancorp
122. ING North America Insurance
123. Intel
124. IBM
125. Intuit
126. J.C. Penney
127. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.
128. Jenner & Block
129. Johnson & Johnson
130. Kaiser Permanente
131. KeyCorp
132. Kimberly Clark Corp.
133. Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group
134. Kirkland & Ellis
135. KPMG
136. Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel
137. Latham & Watkins
138. Lehman Brothers
139. Levi Strauss
140. Lexmark International
141. Littler Mendelson PC
142. Liz Claiborne
143. Lockheed Martin Corp.
144. Macy
145. Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP
146. Marriott International
147. Marsh & McLennan Cos.
148. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance
149. MasterCard
150. McDermott Will & Emery
151. McKinsey & Co.
152. Merck & Co.
153. Merrill Lynch & Co.
154. MetLife
155. Microsoft
156. Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky & Popeo
157. Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams
158. Morgan Stanley
159. Morrison & Foerster
160. Motorola
161. National Grid USA
162. Nationwide
163. NCR
164. New York Life Insurance Co.
165. New York Times
166. Newell Rubbermaid
167. Nielsen Co.
168. Nike
169. Nixon Peabody
170. Nordstrom
171. Northern Trust
172. Northrop Grumman
173. Novartis Pharmaceutical Corp.
174. O'Melveny & Myers
175. Oracle
176. Orbitz
177. Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe
178. Owens Corning
179. Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP
180. Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP
181. Pepsi Bottling Group Inc.
182. PepsiCo
183. Perkins Coie
184. Pfizer
185. PG&E
186. Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman
187. Powell Goldstein
188. PricewaterhouseCoopers
189. Progressive Corp.
190. Proskauer Rose LLP
191. Prudential Financial
192. Raymond James Financial
193. Raytheon
194. Recreational Equipment Inc.
195. Replacements Ltd.
196. Reynolds American Inc.
197. Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi LLP
198. Ropes & Gray LLP
199. Sabre Holdings
200. Schering-Plough
201. Sears
202. Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold LLP
203. Sempra Energy
204. Seyfarth Shaw LLP
205. Shell Oil
206. Sidley Austin
207. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP
208. Sodexho
209. Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal
210. Southern California Edison
211. Sprint Nextel
212. Squire, Sanders & Dempsey LLP
213. Starbucks
214. Starcom MediaVest
215. Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide
216. State Street Corp.
217. Subaru of America
218. Sullivan & Cromwell LLP
219. Sun Life Financial Inc.
220. Sun Microsystems
221. SunTrust Banks
222. Supervalu
223. Symantec Corp.
224. Target
225. Tech Data
226. Texas Instruments
227. Thompson Coburn
228. Time Warner
229. TJX Cos.
230. Toyota Financial Services
231. Toyota Motor Sales USA
232. Travelport
233. Troutman Sanders
234. U.S. Bancorp
235. UBS AG
236. Unilever
237. United Business Media
238. United Parcel Service
239. US Airways Group
240. Viacom
241. Vinson & Elkins
242. Visa
243. Visteon Corp.
244. Volkswagen of America
245. Wachovia Corp.
246. Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
247. Walgreens
248. Walt Disney
249. Washington Mutual
250. Weil, Gotshal and Manges
251. Wells Fargo & Co.
252. Whirlpool
253. White & Case
254. Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr
255. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
256. Winston & Strawn
257. Wyndham Worldwide
258. Xerox
259. Yahoo!

This list conclusively proves two things;
1) The Germans are extremely gay. This explains Hitlers girlie hair, of course.
2)Technology is evil. You can't even read these words of warning without using at least two of the gay companies labeled above [hint: blogger is google's homosexual offspring]
--------------------------
Commence the gay boycotting and stop all those satan sodomizing sexual sickos from stealing your son's straightness!!!!!

FSTDT: the inanity, it burns

2008-12-29T06:08:00.004-05:00

I've been spending a lot of time at FSTDT ( fundies say the darndest things) over the last two days, and all I can say is... I hate humanity. Viewing too much of that website at once will quickly turn laughs into tears, wherein you wonder how its possible for so much hatred and stupid to be concentrated into individual bodies. I pity the black, gay, jewish, atheist who is an abortion doctor, who visits the website, for I'd imagine that not even the hulk could outmatch the rage of that woman...

[the link the fstds is in the sidebar by the way, but seriously... do not spend any more than 2 hours a week there...it burns]

Ben Shapiro; logically bankrupt moron

2008-12-24T03:48:00.000-05:00

Okay guys I've got an idea you've never heard before: atheists are evil and have no morality, and rather than explain why atheists are still nice, I'm just going to ramble on about determinism when I think I'm talking about religion. Never heard it before? Well I have, but never from a non fundy, until now...behold the mighty link...

Done reading it? Good. Didn't read it? Even better, as you are about to see it again, in bite sized pieces:

Why Atheism Is Morally Bankrupt
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
By Ben Shapiro

we are off to a great start, it even has a catchy title like mine!

If you walk around Washington, D.C., on a regular basis, you’re likely to see some rather peculiar posters. But you won’t see anything more peculiar than the ads put out by the American Humanist Association. “Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness sake,” say the signs, in Christmas-colored red and green.

Sounds great, doesn’t it? Just be good for goodness’ sake. You don’t need some Big Man in the Sky telling you what to do. You can be a wonderful person simply by doing the right thing.

Yes, it does sound great. Oh wait, you are being sarcastic and about to say something disingenuous and moronic, aren't you?

There’s only one problem: without God, there can be no moral choice. Without God, there is no capacity for free will.

Oh noez, not the argument from "without god the universe cannot possibly be indeterministic and I'm going to make blanket statements about atheists under the cover of determinism". Come on now, free will has nothing to do with religion, and if you dare disagree I shall throw my copy of freedom evolves at you...rawr.

That’s because a Godless world is a soulless world.

its also a karmaless world, a chakraless world, a chiless world, a magicless world, a ghostless world, a zenless world, and a rational world. I'm betting that most of those concepts Ben would reject because he is a christian, so the entire thing is a huge emotional non sequitor in which Ben points his finger and goes "look, they don't believe in my type of magic, so they can't be good."

Virtually all faiths hold that God endows human beings with the unique ability to choose their actions—the ability to transcend biology and environment in order to do good. Transcending biology and our environment requires a higher power—a spark of the supernatural. As philosopher Rene Descartes, put it, “Although … I possess a body with which I am very intimately conjoined … [my soul] is entirely and absolutely distinct from my body and can exist without it.”

Now when we say soul, what are we talking about here? Do you mean your personality, and they way you act towards others, because if so, I'm afraid that your soul is only is small fragment of your brain. If you mean something that everyone has, but it doesn't affect how they act towards others, than the frelling thing is pointless as far as your argument goes.

Gilbert Pyle, the atheistic philosopher, derogatorily labeled the idea of soul/body dualism, “the ghost in the machine.” Nonetheless, our entire legal and moral system is based on the ghost in the machine—the presupposition that we can choose to do otherwise.

Once again, linking atheism to determinism is moronic.

We can only condemn or praise individuals if they are responsible for their actions. We don’t jail squirrels for garden theft or dogs for assaulting cats—they aren’t responsible for their actions. But we routinely lock up kleptomaniacs and violent felons.

We don't lock up squirrels, but it isn't because they don't have a soul, its because squirrels are nearly incapable of any kind of behavior that isn't instinctive. We don't lock them up, because they don't have the cognitive ability to think "hmm, maybe taking this away from others is a bad thing" and it isn't a soul that gives a human the ability to think like that. Your brain controls your personality, morals, emotions, behavioral patterns, and instincts, not some floaty ghost in the machine.

It’s not only our criminal justice system that presupposes a Creator. It’s our entire notion of freedom and equality. “We hold these truths to be self-evident,” wrote Thomas Jefferson, supposed atheist, “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

I just wanted to say that Jefferson was a deist, not an atheist. If he was alive today he would probably be an atheist, but atheism wasn't really an easily comprehensible idea in the 1700's.

Human equality must spring from a Creator, because the presence of a soul is all that makes man human and equal. Biology suggests inherent inequality—who would call Arnold Schwarzenegger and Stephen Hawking equal in any way? Biology suggests the sort of Hegelian social Darwinism embraced by totalitarian dictators, not the principles of equality articulated by the Founding Fathers.

Of course evolutionary biology suggests inherent inequality, just because it exists doesn't make it morally right. Ideas evolve too though, as does society. Humans have reached a point where they are developing knowledge quite a bit faster than they are developing physical traits, we have developed our own legal systems out of the most primal instincts of survival, moral concepts about other arise from contemplating the way that we and others should be treated, and ideas evolve. Claiming that god is responsible for the social evolution of humans seems kind of cheesy to me.

Without a soul, freedom too is impossible—we are all slaves to our biology. According to atheists, human beings are intensely complex machines. Our actions are determined by our genetics and our environment. According to atheists, if we could somehow determine all the constituent material parts of the universe, we would be able to predict all human action, down to the exact moment at which Vice President-elect Joe Biden will pick his nose.

you wouldn't be talking about something like laplace's demon, perhaps?

Freedom is generically defined as “the power to determine action without restraint” (Random House). But if action without restraint is impossible, how can we fight for freedom?

Believe it or not, at this point I considered actually mailing Ben "freedom evolves", and attaching a note to it that said "please bang your head against this book, and read it...but not in that order", but then I remembered that as soon as he opened the book, his eyes would become blinded by the sexy picture of Daniel Dennett.

If there is no God, there is no freedom to choose. If there is no freedom to choose, there is no good or evil.

Just because there is no objective morality for atheists does not mean there is no morality. its like saying that because not every country agrees on the correct punishment for murder, that no country punishes for murder. Even christian morality, and Islamic morality aren't uniformal, despite that both holy books claim to be. If they were than Sunnis and Shiites wouldn't exist, Catholics and Protestants would be joined as well. Its all in how the people interpret things.

There is merely action and inaction. There is no way to “be good for goodness’ sake”—that would require an act of voluntary will far beyond human capacity.

Altruism is beyond human capability? Isn't the idea that, if you help people than they will be more likely to help you back, enough of a reason to do good things? What about making others happy because we ourselves know that we like to be happy? Are humans really too moronic to act on those thoughts(yes, I realize that some are. Those people are civil suit lawyers)? As you said before "You don’t need some Big Man in the Sky telling you what to do [to do the right thing]". It may help you to do nice things, but not everyone needs that.

Atheists simply gloss over this point. The American Humanist Association states on its website, whybelieveinagod.org, “We can have ethics and values based on our built-in drives toward a moral life.” Without a soul, this is wishful thinking of the highest order.

I still do not see how this shiny soul thing affects morality. This unique argument of mixing body-soul dualism and an argument from indeterminism is starting to look very faulty. I'm pretty sure the only way this argument can stand up is if you start with the premise that the brain does not control one's behavior and personality, or if one says that the brain is controlled by the soul. The problem with the first premise is that is completely disagrees with modern neuroscience, and the problem with the second is that it doesn't allow Ben to make blanket statements about atheist morality.

Since when does biology dictate a moral drive? If it did, wouldn’t man always get more rather than less moral—wouldn’t history be a long upward climb? What about the murderers, rapists, child molesters and genocidal dictators? Are they all ignoring that “built-in drive toward a moral life”?

Of course biology doesn't give us morality, then again...neither does gravity. Human-kind must be drug kicking and screaming towards morality, sometimes its a religious group that is at the forefront, and sometimes it is the religious who kick and scream the loudest.

Atheism may work for individuals. There are moral atheists and there are immoral religious people. But as a system of thought, atheism cannot be the basis for any functional state.

It is not a system of thought. It is simply a lack of belief. Just as a lack of belief in the loch ness monster is not a system of thought, the lack of belief in a god does not give you an innate mindset towards anything other than a belief in a god.

If we wish to protect freedom and equality, we must understand the value of recognizing God.

Subtext: atheists are a danger to freedom and equality, because they do not believe in a god.Well gee thanks, I appreciate the sentiment...

We must recognize the flame of divinity—free will—He implanted within each of us.

By "he" you mean the flying spaghetti monster, right?
---
In conclusion, I'd like to recommend that all of you immoral atheists please keep aborting babies, burning christians, and giving all of your money to those greedy greedy jews...oh, and be please be prepared for the final battle on christmas tomorrow. Shields are not necessary, but you MUST bring at least one copy of the bible/koran/torah/samhita/analects/Mahabharata NO EXCEPTIONS. We are having a huge bonfire before the final battle, and hoping that the fire will help us summon the armies of satan, baal, and mephisto.

heeeelp meeeeeee; I've been memed

2008-12-19T15:26:00.003-05:00

I was at the atheist revolution today, and I thought I'd take part in a meme called "The Hardcore Atheism Meme"

Copy and paste the list below on your own site, boldfacing the things you’ve done. (Feel free to add your own elaboration and commentary to each item!)

And the list:

1. Participated in the Blasphemy Challenge. (nein, got a kick out of it though.)
2. Met at least one of the “Four Horsemen” (Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris) in person. (afraid not, and I only really like one of the four)
3. Created an atheist blog. (That wasn't the original intention, but I suppose it fits)
4. Used the Flying Spaghetti Monster in a religious debate with someone. (most definitely true)
5. Gotten offended when someone called you an agnostic. (no, but I do find it annoying when people suggest that I'm mad at/running away from god/s.
6. Been unable to watch Growing Pains reruns because of Kirk Cameron. (before my time)
7. Own more Bibles than most Christians you know. (3, not counting the one on my computer, I also have a Qu'ran on computer).
8. Have at least one Bible with your personal annotations regarding contradictions, disturbing parts, etc. (who needs one? That is what the SAB existed for.
9. Have come out as an atheist to your family. (most of them, anyways. No need to wave it like a flag, I'll tell them if they ask though)
10. Attended a campus or off-campus atheist gathering. (no thank you)
11. Are a member of an organized atheist/Humanist/etc. organization. (in ohio? Good luck)
12. Had a Humanist wedding ceremony. (no ring on my finger yet, thank god)
13. Donated money to an atheist organization. (I r broke, and not a member of any organizations)
14. Have a bookshelf dedicated solely to Richard Dawkins. (I don't own a single dawkins book.)
15. Lost the friendship of someone you know because of your non-theism. (nah)
16. Tried to argue or have a discussion with someone who stopped you on the street to proselytize. ( Nah, not to many street proselytzers around here.)
17. Had to hide your atheist beliefs on a first date because you didn’t want to scare him/her away. (ehh...)
18. Own a stockpile of atheist paraphernalia (bumper stickers, buttons, shirts, etc). (no, and I don't see any time I'd need to use it either...
19. Attended a protest that involved religion. (nah, but I've supported plenty... like the one on the mormon church in california.)
20. Attended an atheist conference. (nope)
21. Subscribe to Pat Condell’s YouTube channel. (had to look him up so...no)
22. Started an atheist group in your area or school. (online schooling...no)
23. Successfully “de-converted” someone to atheism. (yes, while she was on a christian chat room no less.)
24. Have already made plans to donate your body to science after you die. (nope)
25. Told someone you’re an atheist only because you wanted to see the person’s reaction. (nah)
26. Had to think twice before screaming “Oh God!” during sex. Or you said something else in its place. (errm...)
27. Lost a job because of your atheism. (never had one)
28. Formed a bond with someone specifically because of your mutual atheism (meeting this person at a local gathering or conference doesn’t count). (no)
29. Have crossed “In God We Trust” off of — or put a pro-church-state-separation stamp on — dollar bills. (no, that would be a waste of a dollar. I have seen dollar bills advertising christian website though, quite a brilliant advertising scheme.)
30. Refused to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. (yes, but not because of the words "under god")
31. Said “Gesundheit!” (or nothing at all) after someone sneezed because you didn’t want to say “Bless you!” (maybe once or twice)
32. Have ever chosen not to clasp your hands together out of fear someone might think you’re praying. (who in the hell cares?)
33. Have turned on Christian TV because you need something entertaining to watch. (the 700 club is better than stand up comedy sometimes)
34. Are a 2nd or 3rd (or more) generation atheist. (nope, I come from a family of cultural christians, pentecoastals, and whatever on the hell the Cherokee tribes worship)
35. Have “atheism” listed on your Facebook or dating profile — and not a euphemistic variant. (facebook...it burns...get...it...away)
36. Attended an atheist’s funeral (i.e. a non-religious service). (nope.)
37. Subscribe to an freethought magazine (e.g. Free Inquiry, Skeptic) (nein)
38. Have been interviewed by a reporter because of your atheism. ('fraid not)
39. Written a letter-to-the-editor about an issue related to your non-belief in God. (nah)
40. Gave a friend or acquaintance a New Atheist book as a gift. (huh-uh)
41. Wear pro-atheist clothing in public. (don't have any)
42. Have invited Mormons/Jehovah’s Witnesses into your house specifically because you wanted to argue with them. (nope)
43. Have been physically threatened (or beaten up) because you didn’t believe in God. (just threats)
44. Receive Google Alerts on “atheism” (or variants). (nope)
45. Received fewer Christmas presents than expected because people assumed you didn’t celebrate it. (nyet)
46. Visited The Creation Museum or saw Ben Stein’s Expelled just so you could keep tabs on the “enemy.” ( I'll see expelled right about the same time that I admit that I'm a Hitler worshiping Nazi.)
47. Refuse to tell anyone what your “sign” is… because it doesn’t matter at all. (don't ask and I won't tell)
48. Are on a mailing list for a Christian organization just so you can see what they’re up to… (kind of... scroll down about two posts)
49. Have kept your eyes open while you watched others around you pray. (yes.)
50. Avoid even Unitarian churches because they’re too close to religion for you. (there aren't even any around here)

12/50
I guess I aren't as ebil as I thought...phear me still please?
Click me for the entire post.

I hate youtube; may its creators burn in everlasting torment

2008-12-15T23:54:00.002-05:00

Well I was finally drawn back to youtube, and saw another video that made me contemplate putting a fellow human being in a comatose state. These anti-atheist videos are like car crashes, its a horrid mess yet you can't look away. Actually its more like a car crash where a drunk driver injured one of your family members, wherein you can't look away, and you want to fling a bag of hammers at the driver. I'm exaggerating of course, but here is the video link:

Click me if you dare!

Lets look at the amazing logic in this video, and the brilliance of telling us ebil atheists that we are ebil, because we don't hang out with that popular jesus dude, starting with:

Atheists are immoral
Atheists compare themselves with other people to make themselves feel 'moral'
they may say 'at least I'm not a...'
hitler
osama
paris hilton
4 chan member
sodomite(oh wait...)

I don't need to compare myself to bad people to say that I'm moral, I'm pretty sure that my definition morality isn't the same as yours anyways so comparisons to other people means fuck all to you.

you may think you're good b/c(b/c? you really can't write out the word because?)
you work hard at your job
you keep to yourself and don't bother anyone
you are a family man/woman
at least I'm not hooked on meth or drugs
at least I'm not in jail
the atheist argues "I have more good karma than bad"

a)no job
b)I suppose I do leave people alone...sometimes
c)*crickets chirp*
d)meth is a drug, however coffee isn't. I guess that makes me clear.
e)Jail is no fun, I prefer my sodomy to be consensual, thank you.
f) atheists, karma? really? honestly? The karmic wheel is a Hindu idea, and considering most atheists tend to favor science over belief, its just a strawman.

Once again I must reiterate that I don't need to say "but I'm good because I don't do x", its a strawman to make the atheist in question seem like he is pleading to show you he is moral by saying obvious things. We have different definitions of morality, and by your standards I am automatically immoral because I don't believe in your magical father in the sky.

But are you really good in god's sight?

In your god's sight, no I am not. Neither are you though, so I suppose your point is moot. The only difference is that you believe you are forgiven, and you believe I am not.

try this quick test:
have you ever lied? = liar
have you ever stole? = thief
have you ever lusted = adultery

have you ever imitated Ray Comfort? = moron

Honestly now, by this point it should be obvious where this is leading, right down Ray Comfort's road of "atheists are immoral by gods standards and they MUST REPENT, rawr" which delightfully omits the fact that by their definition, the entire world is immoral, so the entire point is to only provoke an emotional response.

*cue funny little video where orphan raising, blood donating, life saving man is sent to hell while (presumably) wife beating, alcoholic, rapist, drug using, lying, thief, pedophile christian is accepted into heaven*

I think if anything can be learned from Christianity, this is it. Hitler can earn heaven, but I must burn in hell. The only thing in the world that matters is belief. The atheists, Hindus, and Buddhists who are doctors and heal the dieing burn in torment forever and ever, while Fred frelling Phelps lives in peace and harmony forever.

*cue beautiful scenery and bible verses that intend to make non believers feel like scum*

pretty pictures, horrid texts. No emotional response from either though, I'm afraid.

[paraphrase]please go to church with moral people, and let them show you how to truly live a moral life.

I remember when I was little and I went to church, turns out that our pastor was a con-man and ended up robbing the church of over 10,000 and he got away. Blessed truly are you moral people of god, and cursed is it to be me, a lowly and foul wretch who wants to live his life helping people and being nice. I deserve to burn. On the bright side, if the Muslims are right then you will burn with me...well I suppose that isn't a bright side, but at least its warm.

E-mail spam?

2008-12-09T08:07:00.002-05:00

Someone read my blog and decided to sign me up for both the American Family Association, and OneNewsNow.com newsletters... That isn't very nice. To be honest if I see one more "omgeez teh gays r taking over our church/president/children/abortion clinics" I'm going to go kill me some heteros(suicide?). Honestly though, I think I learned my lesson, don't ever support gays on anything, or you will get newsletter from which you can't unsubscribe. On a side note though, the e-mails are hilarious:

"Episcopals vote for more gay clergy"
"Obama has consistently let the gays have their way..."
"...liberal media goes easy on gay pastor..."

whale wars: animal rights done wrong

2008-12-03T03:25:00.000-05:00

If you haven't heard of it it before, whale wars is a TV show on discovery that documents the activist movements of the sea Shepard conversationalist society aboard their vessel, the sea Shepard. Normally a conversationalist group would be far too boring to broadcast on public cable, but the SSCS has a rather unusual way of dealing with Japanese whalers... they damage the whaling boats equipment, make the decks of the ships unusable, and even once boarded a whaling ship without permission. Even other anti-whaling organizations like greenpeace are annoyed by their antics.

I personally think that the only way to fix the whaling problem is educating the Japanese officials, and cutting the allotted amount of whales allotted by small amounts at a time. Even if I supported a less diplomatic approach, there is a huge difference between benign protesting and property destruction/illegal boarding. They make other ecology based organizations look bad with their antics. They seem to hold the belief that the ends justify the means, but it just seems to me that they only end up looking like eco-terrorists.

Social Awkwardness?

2008-11-28T05:21:00.004-05:00

Well I had a wonderful thanksgiving with my family today (or yesterday, if you wish to be semantical...), but the before dinner prayer and thanks came across as awkward as hell. In retrospect, I probably could have saved face by just getting up and staying there until they had finished. Alas, I had not and what is done is done. I suppose what I'm truly thankful for is that I was the third person at the table to to the prayer and thanks, so it was pretty much forgotten by the time they got to my brother. Here is in large what happened:

I was contemplating leaving the table as everyone bowed their heads, but decided against it. Everyone (including I) bowed their heads and my grandmother started praying. I hadn't closed my eyes, and instead just hid my eyes under the brim of my fedora. She gave the usual thanks for the food her health and her family (wealth understandably not being there this time), then everyone unbowed their heads and we went around saying what we were thankful for, and when it came to be my turn I said "pass"...unfortunately it failed. My family spent a minute trying to coax an answer out of me, but I still refused and felt awkward as hell. They continued around the table, and the usual thanks were given for food/love/family/thatfrellingministrywebsiteofmyaunt's and so on. Afterwords dinner began uneventfully as possible for my family, and concluded likewise.

For those of you wondering why I didn't just give an answer, its because the way it is phrased. Its unspoken, but in essence when giving thanks you are saying "I am thankful for "x", to Jehovah", and that makes me uncomfortable. I could have also said something mildly mocking, but I don't need to be seen as the ass of the family of smartasses.

[on a side note, my grandmother is very into end times prophecy (christian specifically), and has many books about the end times lying around. She requested that I get any book from bible canon that I could. I normally would turn down such a request, but the awesomeness of letting her read the apocalypse of peter is worth taking the time out to google and print most of the others.]

Atheists are a cult: redefining atheism

2008-11-24T22:33:00.003-05:00

Looking through the wide, wide, world wide webs, it seems to me that many people hold atheism as a cult which actively believes that there is no god. I find it equally interesting and depressing that so many people fall into this three segment belief, wherein agnosticism falls in between theism and atheism. It doesn't make sense to me why people draw such a line as the one below.

In this logic of thinking, you go from belief to knowledge, then back to belief. Being an agnostic or a gnostic defines what you know, while theism and atheism apply to what you believe, because of that, I think this chart is more apt.

while there are problems with this chart as well (namely the fact that it only applies if you have an opinion on both belief and knowledge), it doesn't suffer from mixing questions and putting everything on one dimension. By creating separate axis's, both issues of knowledge and belief can be addressed independently. But what does this have to do with calling atheists cultists? Well in essence, by not mixing up knowledge and belief, the title of "cultlike atheist" now falls upon the gnostic atheist. Very few atheists actually claim that they know that there is no god, rather they do not believe and do not know whether a god exists. By defining belief and knowledge separately, the "atheist cult" starts to look like a strawman.

A short lesson on jehovah's witness math

2008-11-19T02:28:00.004-05:00

I don't know how, but 13 different people have come to my website last month by searching "jehovahs witness 144000". My first piece of advice for these people is to learn how to punctuate, but aside from that I though I'd share a interesting tidbit about the witnesses for all you curious googlers.

I'd like to start out by identifying the significance of the number 144,000. That is the magic number of witness's that get to go to heaven, they are considered "the anointed". The problem therein is the fact that each year worldwide, the jehovah's witnesses grow by about 300,000 (give or take 30,000). This means that heaven will become more and more privy, and if Jesus doesn't hurry his butt up... the chances of a witness being considered "anointed" will drop to a very low non zero percent. Even today with about three million witnesses out and about, the chance of a particular witness getting to heaven is about 4.8% or 1:21 odds. Even if you only counted those active in preaching and missionary work (estimated 500,000) your chances of getting into heaven end up falling between 1:3 and 1:4 odds. Simply put, your average witness isn't likely to end up in heaven.

"What happens to all the other witnesses?" you may ask. They stay on the earth forever, but is becomes a narnian-esque paradise version of its former self. Not a bad deal, but you do kind of get cut short. Chances are a friend or two of yours will have made it in heaven but you get cut a raw deal, and I'd imagine that would put a damper on a few peoples paradise. As for the witness's version of hell, there isn't one. Everyone is simply wiped from the earth.

Also for fun, check out the cards at the new humanist (the image is a link):

[I know it says 6,000,000... I'm not sure who's numbers are right, to be honest]

Damned news media...

2008-11-12T10:37:00.002-05:00

The news media actually stole my punchline with the blacks voting against the gays...everyone from CNN, to John Stewart to Bill O'Reilly. Now that the news has said it, the entire blame joke has gotten far too serious and is more controversy than irony. I therefore retract my statement, and I don't blame the blacks anymore...because the news media made it uncool.

I apologize to the entire black community for making a comment that was later said by Bill O'Reilly. It's nearly as shameful as actually agreeing with Dick Cheney on...anything.

The anticipation is killing me, but its over...

2008-11-05T12:41:00.002-05:00

I give up on the idea of prop 8 failing. Its over, and the Mormons and AFA have won. What a wonderful anti-thesis to the successful election of Obama, Californian gays once again losing their right to get married like heterosexual couples. You know, I personally find this incredibly sad, but even more so ironic. The thing about prop 8 is, whites tend to vote no, blacks tended to vote yes, and Hispanics were split. The gays are actually being opposed most by the most oppressed group in American history. I don't see how anyone could be so hypocritical, I would think that African Americans of all ethnic groups, would support equal rights. Is there something I'm missing here?

yes Yes YES! Yatta! Obama is our unofficial new president!

2008-11-04T23:22:00.002-05:00

Well, its happened. We finally managed to elect a terrorist, anti-christ, nigger to the highest office to the land. I'm joking of course, I couldn't be more happier. I will undoubtedly end up criticizing Obama many times over the next 4 years, but I'm happy that it is he who shall earn my criticism, and not McCain and Palin. I however abhor the news media for bringing race too much into this. Mentioning slavery and discrimination seems like a cheap and tacky thing to do. There is a time and place for this, but at this moment I think focusing on his policies and ideals and much more important. Congratulations to the biologists as well, as you managed to dodge the bullet of creationism.

I'll add more later, I'm just so happy that McCain isn't our next president.

Apple and google have gone gay...

2008-11-03T10:40:00.004-05:00

Or rather, they are supporting the death of proposition 8 by donating a large sum of money that will be used to protest proposition 8. Quite a few people are a bit pissed off at apple for taking part in politics, including a couple stock holders that are afraid of them losing profits due to potential protests of the apple brands. I honestly don't think too many apple users are going to flip like a switch due to them supporting gay rights, as this isn't the first time the company has been shown to be very supportive of equal rights for gays. Apple was one of the first Californian companies to expressly allow homosexuals to work there. As for google, I shall not speak such blasphemy about my corporate masters. All hail google, and if you're in California... just vote your mind.

Carnival of the Godless 103; The (almost) halloween edition

2008-10-26T11:21:00.008-04:00

Well, its that time of year again, the time when satanists run around in skimpy costumes, churches pass out candy to children dressing up as serial killers, and old ladies start ranting on about the devil's holiday. Whether you choose to escort a group of ghosts and goblins around, attend a party at which you meet the tooth fairy, pass out sugary treats to death himself there is nothing that can beat a good holiday...except maybe a free cup of coffee or a few posts from several atheists around the net(or both).

>>>read more!<<<

I've given a summary of each entry below. I've also passed out candy to the owners of each of the submissions. The candy is based on the topic/style of the article, so without further ado...lets start!

----

Daniel Florien presents Are Christians happier than non-Christians? posted at Unreasonable Faith.
Daniel questions whether faith in general does make one more happy than those without. I also suggest you scroll down and read the article clipped by the 16th commenter.
~reward~: pixy stix

Greta Christina presents What Convinced You? A Non-Belief Summary... and an Atheist Game Plan posted at Greta Christina's Blog.
Greta lays out the results of a small poll she did concerning how the subjects in question became atheists, and why.
~reward~: smarties

Greg Perkins presents Religulous: One Cheer out of Three posted at NoodleFood.
Greg lays out his opinion for Bill Maher's new movie, and points out a possible flaw that will put the religious on the defensive.
~reward~:sweetarts

Paul Sunstone presents Can Fundamentalists be Reasoned with? posted at Café Philos: an internet café.
Paul lays out a few reasons that rational discussion with evangelicals can so often so awry.
~reward: licorice

Postman presents Dear Chosen People... posted at "Gone Fishin': Postcards From God".
In this post, god himself addresses the Jews. I'm sorry all my little Jewish buddies, but I guess its over between you and god...
~reward~:laffy taffy

Magdalune presents Dubious at Best: An Emotionally Based Faith posted at Sowing Seeds in Winter.
Magdalune shares a essay done in college with us, and provides comments from her current self as well.
~reward~: pixi stix

Archvillain presents (Out of) Focus Groups posted at A Dark and Sinister Force for Good.
Archvillain likes to avoid unbelievably stupid and ridiculous things... too bad they try don't avoid him.
~reward~: laffy taffy

becauseemilysaysso presents Catholic Guilt posted at Because Emily Says So.
Emily shares a humorous story and proceeds to reflect on why she felt guilty over getting an employee fired, and how her Catholicism played a role.
~reward~:laffy taffy

The Ridger presents To make the truth inaccessible posted at The Greenbelt.
The ridger points out a possible biblical contradiction between an amazon review for "Frank and Casper Go To Church" and Matthew 13:14-15.
~reward~:licorice

A.C. Chase presents Statements of Fact VI posted at Alexander the Atheist.
All of these are true facts, no truthiness needed!
~reward~: laffy taffy

db0 presents How Epicurism can alleviate Poverty posted at A Division by Zer0.
Db0 knows the secrets to life, property, and the pursuit of happiness and he's offered to give them away for free.
~reward~:smarties

Andrew Bernardin presents The Questionable Comfort of Religion posted at the evolving mind.
Shock experiments, the virgin mary, and questionable experiment results. What do these things have to do with each other? Read and find out.
~reward~:licorice

Doctor Biobrain presents Challenges from God posted at And Doctor Biobrain's Response Is....
Dr. Biobrain questions Sarah Palin's reasoning for her "hard core pro-lifer" stance.
~reward~:dum-dum lollipop

The Atheist Jew presents Bill Maher Is Pissing Me Off A Bit posted at THE ATHEIST JEW.
Atheist Jew talks about how Bill Maher may be feigning agnosticism for the sake of saving face in the public view.
~reward~: sweetarts

JT presents I'm Suing Ray Comfort posted at DisComforting Ignorance.
Okay here's the plan. I'll make the t-shirt slogans and pamplets/leaflets, JT can make the actual book, and Ray Comfort can advertise(he looks like a used car salesman anyways).
~reward~: translucent gummy bears

Jake presents Do These Religions Make My Mind Look Fat? posted at Atheist Loser.
In this post post compares losing weight to losing religion. It may be chalk full of metaphors and similes, but its quite a good read.
~reward~: Sorry, none for you. I wouldn't want to tempt you with candy from my bucket of good and evil.

Ron Britton presents Expelled on DVD posted at Bay of Fundie.
The world's favorite movie, Expelled is out on DVD. Unfortently, thanks to Bill Maher raking in millions of dollars Expelled had to change their poster. Number 1 documentary of '08? Sorry Benny old boy...
~reward~: laffy taffy

Akusai presents The Flavor of Pink posted at Action Skeptics.
Strike three and he is out. Another article focusing on criticizing a part of Bill Maher's movie "religuous". Oddly enough, all of this attention is making me want to watch the movie.
~reward~: sweetarts

Michael Snyder presents Christmas Was Not Originally A Christian Holiday posted at The Moral Collapse Of America.
Christianity is a blend of many religions, mainly paganism and Judaism. This brings us to Christmas, a holiday in which one plays acts regales stories of a jolly old man who distributes presents to children, or a day of giving, or jesus's birthday, or the son god's birthday, or thor's birthday, or a time to worship jupiter with a festival... so many to choose from.
~reward~: a candy cane

Dave Vogt presents All Out! End Christmas Now! posted at Jesus Drives an SUV.
I'll be honest with you, I was going to write on this exact topic. In this post Dave talks about the war on christmas that one gets involved in the minute they utter the words "happy holidays". This time the christians have brought heavy artillery though. This time they have lapel pins and stickers! Men and women of the secular community, ready your keyboards for a counter-attack of the highest order.
~reward~: a candy cane

Jim Linville presents ANIMALS OBEY THE LAWS OF NATURE, THEREFORE GOD. posted at Dr. Jim's.
Animals can't talk?
They don't wear clothes either?
They are ain't no homosexuals?(lie.)
Therefore, god exists.
~reward~: dum-dum lollipop

Ron Gold presents Walker Wants A Christian Nation posted at The Invisible Pink Unicorn.
Jesus can walk on water, but Chuck Norris can swim through land. He can also prove to be quite annoying, with his disdain for church-state separation. This article by Ron shows just what Walker has been up to lately with his friends at WND.
~reward~: laffy taffy

Max Power presents An Idiots Guide To Raising Children The Biblical Way | Diluted Reality posted at Diluted Reality.
Max shows the world a proper christian teachin' by showing the world how to raise their kids old testament style. My advice? Own at least 7 stones per child, 13 if your kid is taller than you.
~reward~: laffy taffy

-------

There you have it folks, candy abound and great reading material as well. I sincerely apolozise to everyone for the sillyness that showed up so much during the second half of the posts, it was all the coffee's fault. It took me a shot of expresso, 6 cups of coffee and 3 hours to write this so you better be happy...please?

Why I love my state, the redux

2008-10-21T07:23:00.001-04:00

If you are one of the 7 Americans on the internet who has yet to see the video of the Palin rally in Ohio, here ya go. Please watch the video before you read this, or you may find it hard to believe that such a level of ignorance and blatant racism could ever be caught on camera. The most wonderful part? It was recorded in lil' old St. Clairsville, which is only about 20 miles away from me. The ironic thing is the fact that St. Clairsville has a disproportionately large number of African Americans for the area. I think many of the people may have been projecting, particularly the ones commenting on how they thought Obama didn't like the white people. In St. Clairsville most of the people who live in the slum-like areas are in fact white.

As for the claims of Obama being a Muslim and a terrorist, I think those people have been watching too much fox news and studying Obama's terrorist fist jabs too much... On a good note though, at least they showed a few sensible and reasonable people at the rally...too bad that those people happened to be Obama supporters.

atheist community of austin voter's guide; the dallas morning news

2008-10-17T14:36:00.004-04:00

Since I haven't updated my weblog at all lately, I figured I'd attempt to at least make one more post before the carnival of the godless and point out that the ACA's voters guide prompted an article in the Dallas morning news. They took a survey on conjunction with the guide, and you can read both here.

sending in the spam?

2008-10-12T09:07:00.002-04:00

Now I don't mind the occasional political article to read, some of them can be interesting. If you are going to sign someone up for a newsletter though, could you at least tell them about it first? Someone nabbed the e-mail from this blog( I have quite a few e-mail accounts) and submitted me to the newsletter of "the nation". The website doesn't appear to be randomly spamming e-mails, and I'm not in the habit of getting high then going fishing for newsletters so it doesn't leave much choice other than I was submitted from this blog. If you want to do that to people at least give them a heads up first, or better yet ask them if they want the subscription in the first place. Chances are that it was just someone who randomly came to this blog, saw that I held liberal views and signed me up. Either way, please give me some kind of heads up first.

The customer is always wrong

2008-10-04T10:15:00.002-04:00

While it may not be like to go off on tangential topics(read:sarcasm), the jobs of the till workers and those in customer service are quite interesting, especially with some of the fun people they run into. Most of the stories I've heard involve a stupid or arrogant customer getting completely shiv'd by the employee or leaving in frustration.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.70218?page=1
http://notalwaysright.com/
http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53379

These shall keep you entertained for weeks, although I predict reading these shall cause a spike in your contempt for humanity.

Carnival of the Godless 103, I'll be the host

2008-09-27T11:01:00.006-04:00

I shall be hosting the carnival of the godless 103, the Halloween edition. I expect that every bloody submission that I get be aimed at vivid tales of becoming witches, and werewolves, and ponies... oh my! Seriously though, for those of you who have no idea what the carnival of the godless is, it is a gathering of posts that were written about a topic pertaining to atheism or godlessness. Exceptions are also made for posts about church state separation and evolution, which alone have nothing to do with godlessness but are very often explicitly tied in a political sense.

To enter a submission, just click this shiny link or alternatively click the banner image below. It is set to take you to the submission page.

If you send in a submission now, it will be entered into the October 14th edition which is being hosted by divison by zero. Hopefully, edition 101 will be up at layscience.net tomorrow.

Good luck and happy blogging*

(*note: this does not apply to all of you angry ranting bloggers out there. For you I hope you get in several arguments with hate filled people who unsuccessfully try to attack you.)

You just can't ever win, ever

2008-09-25T21:18:00.002-04:00

Well, I have very not good news, for me anyway. My mom was just diagnosed with diabetes, after being misdiagnosed as having a bad case of the flu three times. She is in quite a bit of pain, and almost completely unable to move her hands. At times like these, most people would hit their knees and pray for her. I won't, but I'll do my damnedest to keep her comfortable(moderately, but I think the pain is more powerful than my comfort). Now at this point I could say something along the lines of "why would an all loving god allow this to happen?" but I already know nearly all of the responses. Whether it is God testing her, or Satan trying to draw her away, I really don't care. You can't ever win against this theology, no matter how "good" or "evil" the person is, there is always a cop out for everything. Please if you are reading this right now, do me a favor... The next time someone you know is sick or injured, try to comfort them. I mean genuine and affectionate comfort, make them laugh and reminisce on previous events. Even if you are religious, there is nothing to be lost by spending a bit if time to make someone happy.

A president should be able to do more than one thing at a time...

2008-09-24T23:50:00.003-04:00

I really don't wan to talk about McCain ducking out of the presidential debates, as it has been covered by almost every frelling blogger I've been reading lately. There is however, something that confuses me so I thought I'd ask it. Why is the McCain campaign doing this? It seems to be a political club in the shins for McCain. The liberals are laughing, and the conservatives are concerned. I've heard claims of cowardice about McCain from both sides, this seems like it may have really hurt him. Why would his campaign let him get away with this, it seems like this can't do anything but hurt him.

Obama is dead in Ohio

2008-09-23T18:09:00.003-04:00

Looking at recent presidential polls, it seems that Ohio is one of the key states in this election due to it being a swing state. Unlike Pennsylvania however, Ohio isn't a swing state that has made up its mind. Ohio has made a drastic jump in the last week and a half though by leaning far off to the right. Why the sudden change in people? Sarah Palin. Ohio can be said to have its own bible belt, religiosity thrives here in the south part. While areas like the north east of Ohio may lean democratic, the southern part have simply fallen in love with Palin. I haven't heard a single unkind word about her, though a few may have come from me. She is a pentecostal Christian, creationist, pro-life person, which wins far more votes than wanting to fix the economy. She wants to start a war in Ukraine, believes that the Iraq war is a war for god, and as a mayor she demanded that raped women be forced to pay for their own rape kits. Those things still don't overshadow the fact that she is "one of them", and its almost as if she were designed to appeal to Ohio, because anywhere below Columbus she will be pulling in 70%. I have a feeling McCain will flaunt her in Ohio, and that Ohio will be won by Palin, making you wonder who running the race, McCain and Palin or Palin and McCain.

Everyone's a little bit racist

2008-09-20T19:48:00.003-04:00

Or around 40% of America is anyways. The L.A. Times ran an article about how Obama is being severely hurt by the fact that he is black. 40% of the average American population has a sleight against blacks in one way or another, including 30% of democrats. To me it sounds like a case of having the very racist party running up against the very racist, yet slightly less racist party. I had really thought America had gotten over race issues. Independent voters and democrats are running scared because he is black, and he is going to be gimped by at least a 2.5% vote loss based solely on his skin color. I really think Obama's PR people needs to change his image, literally. Lets make him look white, that ought to win him some votes. Seriously though, are you honestly going to vote against someone because something they were born with? Anti-Palin people, I mean you too. Lets not muck sex, religion, or race into the political game, okay?

It would seem no group is immune from racism, even atheists have their fair share of racists. Racism is often claimed to be less common in atheists than it is in the average population, and I think that is true. The reason I think it would be true that atheists would tend to be less racist on average is because atheists themselves are an extremely small, and extremely bullied minority. Atheists are literally the only minority out of all religious and ethnic minorities that cannot possibly ever win the white house. An Islamic person winning is realistically almost impossible, but an atheist winning is logically impossible. That being said, there are bigots and prejudiced atheists as well. I think the best way to deal with racism is to just talk it out. Talking can't really hurt anyone, and discussion is great for building better opinions on the issue, no matter who you are.

I would like to here people's opinions...

2008-09-14T03:39:00.005-04:00

Good lord, with all the commotion I've caused lately while talking with people no wonder I've earned the nickname "the internet hate machine". Oh wait, that wasn't me? Right then, anyways on to a new topic: Atheists who are easily offended.

Somehow this reminds me of the atheist experience episode a few weeks ago regarding Patrick, an atheist who was offended about a bumper sticker that called atheists fools so he threatened to sue. The reason I'm reminded of this is because whats happened recently is almost the exact same thing.

This is the image that has upset danii, an atheist who... is quite easily offended in my opinion. I've had this as my image as my signature for a couple days now on a forum that I frequent. I have it because I both love playing with poe's law, and because I talked to a Christian who gave me the image and said this is what he thought of atheism. I can't help but find such a gross misrepresentation hilarious, in a "laugh at the ignorance of the creator" sort of way. Below is our conversation(if you could call it that) in xfire, as well at posts from the forum:

Enshoku Yuza: hi
Danii: hi
Enshoku Yuza: 'lo
Danii: what?
Enshoku Yuza: 'lo, as in hello
Danii: hey
Danii: your sig is incorrect
Danii: thats not an aethiest
Danii: its a agnostic
Danii: theres a difference
Danii: see look
Danii: An atheist is one who denies the existence of a deity or of divine beings
Danii: An agnostic is one who believes it impossible to know anything about God or about the creation of the universe and refrains from commitment to any religious doctrine
Danii: see
Danii: thats a difference
Enshoku Yuza: danii, lets not dive into semantics at the moment xfire is lagging me
Danii: your sig is offensive
Danii: change it
Danii: so its correct
Danii: bcuz ur using the wrong word
Enshoku Yuza: please go read my post]
Danii: change it
Danii: ur an idiot
Danii: u obviously dont know what athiest
Danii: is
Danii: read my post
Danii: ur not all that btw
Danii: if anything
Danii: ur nothing

You know if you honestly think that you need to get a life

No honestly nobody likes you stop spending so much time on the computer talking about stuff which you have no idea what it means and go get a life. Maybe for once see what sunshine looks like

Wow how could you get a signature more incorrect than that enshoku

For one atheist dont believe there is a god. Thats it. Nothing more. I'm an athiest and i believe that there was a big bang, then all the first atoms formed, when they combined together they made different atoms, then the matter that was formed soon became a planet, those atoms went on the planet and soon became the first animal, then that animal became more animals of different species.

O btw. Give me 1 logical proof that some Person who runs the whole universe who no1 has seen in real life, plus has never done anything, O but wait HE MADE PEOPLE OUT OF MUD, GEE THAT MAKES PERFECT SENSE, and what the animals were just there. Did they poof into existance ROFL. And bcuz someone ate an apple they were kicked out of somewhere. ROFL HOW REDICIULOUS. O AND YES THEY HAVE TOTAL PROOF THAT SOMEONE SPLIT THE SEA IN HALF. Now honestly that makes no sense whatsoever.

No seriously take off the damn sig its so stupid and incorrect. If you honestly think thats what a athiest is you need a reality check. Dumbass

As I said before, that image was 350x350 pixels of pure spite inducing text. My picture was so evil it infected him with an ad hominem virus which made him sound very immature and angry. This forum(much to my chagrin) has no signature rules, which further makes danii seem almost exactly like Patrick. He wants me to remove my signature because it portrays atheists in an unrealistic and negative light(wait, does that mean that the brains of the fundies can be removed? If so, consider my signature gone). Getting angry and calling names isn't how you get someone to remove something you don't like. Be calm, be rational, refrain from saying that the person "has no life" or is a "dumbass".

I'd like to hear the opinions of my fellow bloggers, and people who read this blog in general. Am I in the wrong for not removing my signature? Is Danii flipping out over an insignificant event? both? Please, just comment and leave your opinion.

edit: he is now trying to get me banned from the forum. So he is both threatening whatever he can take advantage of(like the catholics did to PZ, and throwing tizzy fits over an image like the muslims did about the danish cartoon.I hate to say this because it implies that atheism is a group(it isn't although thats a topic for another time), but danii seems to be quite an irrational atheist with a touch of a victim complex...

edit: fuck

2008-09-11T12:56:00.002-04:00

Remember the anti-spore.com website. It was a brilliant test of Poe's law, and he/she pulled it off brilliantly. I kind of predicted this, because after writing my post I noticed it had a great deal of things in common with the "megan had it coming" website. The woman's sillyness and anger seemed a bit over the top, and she never ever mentioned prayer. All I can say is...Well played my Poe's law abusing friend, well played indeed.

Spore, DRM protection, and angry anti-evolutionists

2008-09-10T13:02:00.004-04:00

I knew I should have did this topic last night. I suppose this is what I get for waiting, PZ Myers beat me to the punch. The bad news is now I sort of feel like a copycat. The good news is he gave me a wonderful reason to not hate spore, and it's some nutter anti-evolutionist who *gasp* seems to know fuck all about evolution.

Spore is a massively single player game in which you have five stages of life to progress though. stage 1 is a cellular stage, in which you must help your cells grow by eating small cells, while helping them avoid larger ones. Stage two plays a bit differently depending on whether you creatures are carnivorous or herbivores. Herbivores must look for plants, while carnivores must look for other hungry beasties to chomp down on. Stage three is the tribal stage, where you use DNA points to control the social evolution of the creature.Stage four is a civilization stage where you must capture the earth. Civiliation level...designed by maxis, nuff said. Stage five is a space capturing game, where you capture uninhabitable planets slowly, and make them habitable. They make a 42(hitchhikers guide to the universe) reference with an item that is called the staff of life(formerly the genesis staff),which is always sexy, even when google does it. There are also black holes and civilized planets and such, but I'll explain those later.

Unfortunately for spore, the devil is in the details. First off, the DNA points system is almost purely cosmetic, as something with eight legs can be beat in a race by something with one leg and points in speed. The only real types of creature you can make are land animals and birds that can glide short distances. No parasites, no water treading creatures, nothing with anything that makes an evolutionary system diverse. I would like to comment that the space part is much more realistic than I would have thought. There are actually black holes, stars, and many other things that you probably wouldn't expect to find in a game that prides itself on simplicity.

Now, for the 20 inch long spike in the coffin, of what might have been an otherwise okay game. DRM(digital rights management) protection is in spore. It installs secuROM, which monitors what programs you use. It also feels that it should check up on you every ten days, just to check that you are who you said you were 10 days ago. Finally, you can only install spore three times...in your entire life. If you want another install you have to call EA personally, and convince them that you actually own the game. EA claims they are doing this to stop the pirates, but you know what? The pirates always win. Not only have the pirates broken spore, they can install it as many times as they want! They also aren't hassled every 10 days, and they aren't being watched by secuROM.

GAME! pirates 4, paying customers 0!

Now that I've berated the hell out of spore, let me go to a woman who will actually force me to say nice things about spore(http://antispore.com/). First, I will applaud the anti-spore lady for one thing...she shot down Jack Thompson(the anti-video game nut who blamed columbine on doom). Now to be honest, I think this woman has too much free time and a martyr complex. In three days she has posted more than I do in a month(although that may may something about me as well). She claims that EA is converting children to evolution using spore, and uses this video as evidence. Unfortunately, it's clearly obvious that the girl is quite well versed in evolution. No one is going to pick up spore and understand the meaning of the phrase transitional forms. While I may not like her taste in clothing, I think she uses spore quite well as an explanation tool(although the latin names was a bit much).

Also, if anyone is reading this...stop sending that woman death threats. She may have a prickish "holier than thou" attitude, but death threats are just wrong. Its only a game people.

When is belief truly belief?

2008-09-09T14:46:00.005-04:00

I'm currently reading a book, "Hiroshima: by John Hersey". This question stemmed from a few sentences in the book, in which a dieing man becomes a Christian. Mr. Tanaka had "many times derided Christianity" and "called it unjapanese". He was injured badly in the blast and knowing that he was going to die, he purposely took refuge in a Christian church. The author attributes this to wanting the comfort of religion, something I can see... but does that make it a true belief? I really don't think believing because you want to can make it a true belief. Is this honestly what all those amazing death bed conversions amount to? If so, I'm not impressed. People who tell those stories as miracles are lying, nothing miraculous about a person who was afraid. Using the dead as a means to an end is disrespectful to that person.

For all you christians out there...

2008-09-07T03:15:00.002-04:00

Just remember that the LHC cannot possibly destroy the earth because then jesus can't come back... Yes, many people believe this. I'd like to take it a step further and argue that god would have destroyed the LHC by now providing he exists, and that it poses a threat to earth.

if(god{[omnipotent]+[omnibenevolent]+[omniscient]}{morality=∞}) then set (var_premature_destruction_of_earth) as 0
//
//
if (var_premature_destruction_of_earth) is activated use script (it_was_gods_plan.rtf) to rationalize
//
//
///end world

Of course, one could make the point that this is Armageddon in waiting, but apparently so is 2000, 2012, the Israeli war, global warming, M.A.D. and much more. Possible anti-Christs are: Barack Obama, Jesus's twin(mormon much?), Matt Dillahunty, Barack Obama, me, Barack Obama, Al gore, Barack Obama...most likely Barack obama.

(Yes over half the links on google's first page to anti christ relate to Obama in some way. They even went so far as to push snopes into writing an article on whether or not he was the anti-christ...what...in...the...hell?)

Oh Noez! We must run, for it iz teh large hadron collider cumming to eatz us!

2008-09-06T13:47:00.004-04:00

I've been reading up on the LHC(large hadron collider) for a few weeks now, and I must say...conspiracy theories show up in the darnedest places! The most prominent conspiracy theory as that the LHC will Create a micro black hole that will destroy the earth. No. Very no. Definitely no. Even if a micro black hole was created(the LHC uses less energy than a finger snap per each launch, so that is unlikely), hawking radiation will have the black hole destroy itself within milliseconds. For those of you who don't know, a black hole's lifespan is directly proportional to it's size, due to hawking radiation being constantly released from the black hole. Super-giant black holes can live for trillions of years, while one the size of my thumb would probably be gone in almost no time at all. No notable physicists are actually claiming that the LHC has any real chance of destroying earth. The scientists who are cited for opposing it are scientists in completely different fields (biology, computer science, etc.). The LHC was designed to detect the higgs boson used lead particles, not destroy the earth with baby black holes...

On a side note, I thought everyone should know: "Physics gives me a large hadron"
(real t-shirt)

A loving theist, and my answers to his kindly asked questions

2008-09-03T10:13:00.006-04:00

I'm on a bit of a spree with satirical titles and/or those that are misnomer, so I thought I would continue the that in this post. This is a response to stonedcommander, theist who steps out of the normal talking points of biology, philosophy, and cosmology and actually devotes about 30 seconds to weather patterns(+25 points for creativity, I've never heard someone go there). He still mentions cosmology and evolution quite a bit, I just found the tornado argument to be a new one. Without further ado, I present the video link, and my response:

Hi, I am a link to a video. Please click me...or else
(sorry it's not embedded, but I try to keep my website and clean and dial-up friendly as possible)

All righty then let's start shall we. Stone starts with the big bang theory, and while his preface may be wrong(big bang was a singularity, not a giant rock or what-have-you)it has no bearing on his question so I'll accept it. The question is basically "If the big bang happened, then why are all the planets round?". The answer is one he doesn't seem to like, time. More than just time actually, most planet's are spherical due to gravity pulling tiny dust particles together, which made tiny rocks. Those tiny rocks collected more dust, and become about the size of a baseball, and so on and so forth. The reason most things tend to be sphere shaped is because gravitation field pull everything towards the center. An example of this are black holes. A black hole has a perfectly spherical field of influence. It pulls equally hard from all directions inward to it's point of singularity, just as planets do, but on an almost infinitively weaker scale. On a side note: he claims that they are(or should be, according to his example) perfectly round. Afraid that isn't so, the earth has a slight egg shape to it, thinner than a sphere at the poles, and thicker around the equator.

Now we go on. "Why do deers keep jumping in front of cars on the highway? Shouldn't evolution make them learn not to? Same for fish that eat worms and get hooked.". The thing about this is that evolution is a biological process that advances through changes in DNA. These deer don't magically obtain car dodging DNA, some deer have a flighty nature, and some have a brave one. If the benefit of being flighty(escaping from hunters and not going near the roads) prove to outweigh the costs(more energy spent on running, less time to find food due to being easily startled) then the deer will become more prone to avoiding roads over time.

next he does a mock-explanation of how the hammerhead shark could have came to be. To that I'll take the question to be "why does a hammerhead shark look so odd?". The biology of sharks and rays research institution actually wrote about this very animal. here is the link. Also, when he says there is only one shark in the ocean with a hammerhead he is wrong, there are at least 7 species of hammerheads.

Now the hilarious part:
" you don't know anything about anything. Just like tornadoes and twisters. Oh, you can predict the weather, the weather conditions that create a tornado or a twister...you have no idea, no idea what makes that happen"
Actually, we do. My younger sister even knows what makes this happen, she learned it in her fourth grade science book. When warm air and cool air encroach on each other(warm air on bottom, cool on top), the warm air starts to rise. As it begins to rise, the cool air falls to take its place. The transference of air happens quite fast, a wide band of swirling air forms at the center of this transfer. A tornado is what happens when the band of air becomes more concentrated and smaller in size. A tornado's size and speed depend on the updrafts of warm air, once it moves out of an updraft area the tornado quickly loses steam.

Next he talks about the hate people get from atheists on youtube. I agree, there are a lot of immature atheist pricks on youtube, however they aren't the only kind of prick. Atheists, Christians, muslims, etc. all have their fair share of pricks on youtube, it's as if youtube has a prickery magnet attached to it. This is why a rarely comment on youtube videos, as reasoned discourse is almost impossible(sort of like why I'm writing a blog post instead of responding in the comments to this video). If I were him I wouldn't be so keep to paint with such a wide brush.

Due to his condescending nature in the video, he has upset a lot of people. It doesn't really bother me, because when I hear such classic one liners like "at least they believe in something" I can't help but laugh...or maybe I can, but its funny and I have no reason to control my laughter...or do I?

Why I shall vote for McCain, Obama is a baby killer

2008-09-02T00:49:00.002-04:00

Sorry about the misnomer, I'm actually responding to the point in the title. My uncle(and pretty much all my family) isn't voting anymore, but he said if he was that he would vote for McCain. This piqued my interest so I asked him why, and he told me this:

"Well, I was on the internet on a christian news site reading about how obama wants to pass a bill that will allow doctors to kill babies"

At this point, I start thinking "so he is pro choice what the frell?", but It got much more interesting:

"The doctors take them into a room and just line them up and leave them, and let them starve to death, I mean the man makes some pretty good points, but I could never vote for him because of that"

I had no response. I was just awestruck at the ridiculousness of the story, until I found out it was true. Well, it has roots in the truth, but if you put any more spin on it then it would leap into orbit. What the original story is, is that obama had voted against an Illinois bill that would make it illegal to kill babies that survived abortions. He objected on the grounds that the woman running the bill though congress hadn't the slightest bit of evidence on her side showing that doctors were currently being inhumane to the babies, and even the pro-life surgeon general of Illinois shot her down. I think that the baby from the botched abortion should still be dealt with based on what the mother wants. It isn't her fault that the abortion messed up, and making a woman take the most likely deformed baby is giving the mother a choice between having a child she isn't ready for, or able to take care of or having her have the chance of having to take care of a baby with severe medical issues that will break her strength and her budget within days. These girls shouldn't be forced to pay for a doctors mistake, and if they need to be killed, it should be done in the most humane way possible, not left kicking and screaming.

nopossumzone.blogspot.com .txt dump

2008-08-28T04:00:00.004-04:00

Now that this whole no possum zone ordeal is over, and they have deleted all of their posts, I thought I'd give the people who missed it a filedump of what has been posted this last month.

Click here to view the text dump.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

What I regret about this. (Nancy)

What I regret about this is many things with the most big regret that Thomas has been made out to be a abusive man. You dont understand our believes when you say that. I did call police on him a long long time ago that I regret. I was being dramatic when we did not find an agree on a way to act in my roll. He just pushed me then he broke the glassy cover of a cake cover that was my Nana Junes. It was not leaving me abused so please please stop saying it was cause you were not there. He does not abuse me or the children but we follow legal methods to swat.

There is consequinces we face for actions all the time. Thomas does this for our children in we keep the Bibles rules for life. Proverbs 13-24 says He that spareth his rod hateth his son. Its not a gray area for us to decide on our own what we do. Proverbs 19:18 Chasten your son while there is hope,And do not set your heart on his destruction. Proverbs 22:15 Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child;The rod of correction will drive it far from him. Proverbs 23:13 Do not withhold correction from a child,For if you beat him with a rod, he will not die. Proverbs 23:14 You shall beat him with a rod,And deliver his soul from hell. Proverbs 29:15 The rod and rebuke give wisdom,But a child left to himself brings shame to his mother. Our Lord sees to it that there are more than one passage to guide us.

We have so many kids crimes in our society that it is do to not following HIS path he laid with care. You cant have an child who has equal power or they will have spoiled brats for souls. We never hit in anger and that is as the Bible instructs us to be. You take ten minutes to calm anger then I send the kids to their father for a swat or he waits to subcide his anger by reading a verse to them so they know why a swat is needed to help them do right. Spanks are not often or leave marks for more than an hour and the child is found playing happy in that amount of time mostly. We spank in love. IT IS NOT ABUSE IT'S COMMON IN OUR AREA. How do you reason with a two year old when they are to young to reason I think is not going to work.

Posted by No Possum Zone at 3:12 AM 0 comments

Friday, August 22, 2008

22 August

Possummomma is a liar. She lies. She barganed that when I took down the entry of her letter to the possum kids she would take down the past about us. She lied and made a entry on blog about us after I did what she wanted. If she ever wanted to find out how we found her blog she could ask us about it, we would tell her Shannon led us to her atheist rant you call a blog so what. So what where we saw it? Me and Nancy courted for two years until we got married so we were ready to marry when we had sexual relationships. Our child was not born three months after we had a wedding he was born four months after and was a month early. We are sinners who arnt the best perfect people that God knows our sins that we can repent for our soul. I did not lie at my wedding to say that I would love my wife for ever to "save face" when possum mom did.

Posted by No Possum Zone at 2:44 AM 34 comments

Saturday, August 16, 2008

false idols

I have things to say.
Spidergrackle said...
YOU have made veiled accusations the PMomma and others sexually pervert their children: and you have the audacity to level accusations at us because we defend ourselves against your filth?
I did not do any of that your spinning lies.
Autonomous said...
By all means-be angry. Perhaps it will help you to feel what P-momma must when you tell her that she is a bad parent without cause. You know-compassion.
I have cause in spades who ever you are. Two years of her blog is blasphemy but i know you think god is a big joke so what does it mean to you. There are a hundred ways to be a bad parent and I can find a few examples from possummommas blog comments in other posters from google searching. Lets put it all out there and see where she sits in the end of an acounting.
1 Blasphemy is the ultimate sin. Luke 12:10 "And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him.
2 She had a child outside of marriage. (Rom 6:12-13) ... do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. (13) Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. Can I have you read what she said in her survey answer for priorities.
"As a woman, I want my girls to reflect strength of character and
independence. Now, as a mother, my priorities are (in order):1. My children2. My
marriage3. My intellectual and personal growth.4. Encouraging the use of logic
and reason.5. Being an example."

Pomp...ossummomma had sex with a man who wasn't her husband to try to keep him to stay her boyfriend. She can deny it but this world works in mysterious ways and gives me proof found on an an older journal that I got locked out of. She was 20 when P1 was born. Not married. I don't think it's Pdaddys.

She spares the rod and ends up with spoiled children from what I've been told by other people who read her blog and can't comment because they want to vomit.

Posted by No Possum Zone at 3:37 AM 25 comments

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Listen

I do not know how to say how angry I am at what you all have done to Nancy. Would it have been to much to ask for compassion for a pregnant mother who was trying to help someone find Gods rewards. You confirm what we know about atheists which are selfish, hateful people to keep nagging at Nancy and me.
Autonomous said...
I sincerely hope for the sake of you and your children that you do not really think what you say you do. Having been disowned by my own parents for being an atheist, I fear that I hope in vain.
You are twisting words for making us look bad. God does reward want wishy-washy parents who say that denying Him is okay because we will love you no matter how you turn your back on your Creator. No that's not how it works. We have devoted our family to serving God if that makes us evil then that is you being hardened of heart. Your parents were right to turn you away like you did to God. I think you are being this way to justify your life that you know is wrong to do. I will pray that you will see your fault.

Posted by No Possum Zone at 8:22 PM 24 comments

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Parenting questions from Sharon

Possum momma did the survey. I will keep my word and do it it now that she did it. I waited to see if she took it serious or was going to be rude to parents like me. Possum momma thank you for not telling me what I should think. I will try to be the same.

1. What are your priorities as a woman?
Jesus Christ. Raise righteous children. Complimant my husband. Have a servants heart. Jesus has to be first or the rest doesn't work. I can't figure out how you can be the best mother unless you allow God to help you do it.

2. What role does your husband serve in your marriage?
Toms rule is to keep his eye on Gods will to help us choose the right. He is the bread winner to go out to provide for his own like God provides for him. I serve Tom because he is the spiritual guide for our home. He is the disiplinary head.

3. How many children do you have and how old are they. Use initials or numbers for names. It's not important to have their names.
Elijah (9), Havilah (8), Mara (7), Miriam (7), Caleb (4), and Saul (2) with one still waiting to join us.

4. Do you homeschool?
We do I use IBLP. I don't know why any mother would want to see her children go out of her sight for eight hours for the day. Schools are clouded with secular codling. I say if Jesus and God are not welcome in a class that I won't feel welcome which means my child would be discomforted. Socializing is the buzzword politicos have for taking money from tax payments to keep kids in schools. Columbine prooved that to school is dangerous.

5. How many books are in your home?
Oh yes a bunch.
Do you believe children should be allowed to read anything? What should be censored or what bothers you enough to make it off-limits?
Are you out of your mind I am certain you are? Yes yes and yes they should be censored. Books should promote faith not defile it.

6. Give us a brief over-view of your day, if you would please? (this will be important later)
Prayer, grooming, breakfast, school, play, lunch, school, play, chores, Bible study with Tom, prayer, bath, prayer to bed.

7. What does religion mean to you?
God sacrificed his only son for us to be saved by faith. Most churches do not meet our truth for worship which is how Tom got ordained to lead us in home.

8. What does God mean to you?
Salvation is God. HE is my sole inspiration.
9. What is the best possible outcome that you can think of for your children?
Nothing matters if they are not saved.

10. Is there anything your child could od to make you disown him/her? Give us an example of some of those things.
Blaspheme
11. Discipline. What does it mean to you?
keep you on the right path of salvation

12. What educational goals do you have for your children?
To learn the gospel and share it with all people they meet and raise God focus familys.

Posted by No Possum Zone at 3:55 AM 28 comments

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Praise Him (Nancy)

Praise to Him for this comfortable morning.
E-mails from all around have came in our e mail box. I should post them here. Is that right? I do not understand the rules about what blogers are doing with e-mails.

One email was directed to me with a list of questions that I am to do.

I have questions for Nancy. Would Nancy be allowed to answer my questions? Maybe that is the first question? I'm a Christian. Let's try this. If you fill this out we will have a better idea about who you are. I will ask Possummomma the same questions by e-mail. We may find common ground or we may find debates.
1. What are your priorities as a woman? Why?
2. What role does your husband serve in your marriage?
3. How many children do you have and how old are they. Use initials or numbers for names. It's not important to have their names.
4. Do you homeschool?
5. How many books are in your home? Do you believe children should be allowed to read anything? What should be censored or what bothers you enough to make it off-limits?
6. Give us a brief over-view of your day, if you would please? (this will be important later)
7. What does religion mean to you?
8. What does God mean to you?
9. What is the best possible outcome that you can think of for your children? If you have different thoughts for different kids please list for each.
10. Is there anything your child could od to make you disown him/her? Give us an example of some of those things.
11. Discipline. What does it mean to you?
12. What educational goals do you have for your children?
That's it for now.

I will answer after I get the kids out of bed and fed.

Posted by No Possum Zone at 5:00 AM 1 comments

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Answers (Thomas)

Paul is upset that I have not got to his questions so I have found the perfect verse for him.
For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.(Romans 8:24,25).

Word of the Lord.
Paul -Instead of engaging in any meaningful and constructive dialog, with a hope
to persuade someone to your point of view, instead you repeatedly pronounce,
denounce, and run self-congratulatory commentary from your high horse.

What would you expect me to do since my purpose is clear and I have made that evident.

You *still* haven't outlined what basis caused you to adopt Christianity, like I
asked for weeks ago. If -for example- it was because of some 'personal spiritual
experience', then on what possible basis do you dismiss pmomma's own near-death
'personal-experience' as less valid than yours?

My father was a minister. Is that what you wanted to know or is there some other type of basis. I dismiss possummommas story that since she did not see heaven or god that there is no heaven or god because she was not really dead.

You sure know how to make a benign day out at a zoo sound like something
from the Manchurian candidate.That's some nice hysteria you're sporting there,
did you learn it from Fox News, or was it your own invention?

Say you. Do you take your children to meet strangers?
Also, how did you determine that pmomma's puts herself and secularism before her
children? I'm curious, because (to me) it looks like you just kinda made up that
order to make her look bad. Is that good Christian behavior? Didn't you learn in
kindergarten that fabricating things about other people is wrong?

Your heart is harden against me in that case I don't think you will understand. My honest answer is that maybe I don't know. I think her parent skills are not terrible but I wouldn't allow my wife to make a change that would create strife with religion. God has given us a plan. I know we dis-agree on husband and wife issues. In exchange for letting me do my job as father and husband and spiritual leader of my family my wife gets protection, my backup in the matters of discipline, financial security without having to work outside her home, with feminine countenance. We are equals with differing responsibility. Possumdad should take his place as spiritual leader and the possums would be Catholic because their mother must honor the father. That's god's wish. Secularists paint Christian marriage as backwards but ask my wife where she would rather be. No where else but here with a clear purpose. Children are not born with rights to think for there self. How may would be potty trained if they could decide things on their own. Children can think for themselves as they get older. So long as they are in my house it is my way.
Thank you to for teasing my wife like bullies for her typo on Pascals wager.
Dale -You are out of control. What you are doing to Possummomma has nothing to
do with Jesus Christ or the Word of God, it's all about you and feeding your own
hate.

Says you. I don't hate possummomma but I do hate her sins. This is what Christ tells us to love the sinner and hate the sin. Do you read your Bible?

Cryptic Life -If you actually want to show people how they should parent
according to your religion, you have a couple of options. You could show how
wonderful your own children are. Or, you could show examples of other wonderful
children who've been raised the way you prefer. Or, you could make logical
arguments.

My children are precious in His sight. That is what matters to me - they are pure, innocent of secular value, obedient, attractive straight arrows. I know we will give them to the world as those who fight for God. Possummommas kids are liked by you secularists because you see what you want to see.

Rick Sparks -As far as I'm concerned, indoctrinating a child into religion is
mental abuse. Every person who does so should be prosecuted. Religion is a bane
on the intellectual development of humanity.

Ridiculous. Do not waste my time.

Posted by No Possum Zone at 2:14 AM 7 comments

Older Posts

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

A Question to all non-white christians

2008-08-25T04:23:00.004-04:00

I have a question to ask of those people who happen to be proud of one's ethnic heritage and non-white. Do you want to be white in heaven? The reason I ask this question is due to a peculiar part of bible cannon, the gnostic apocalypse of peter. In this, peter describes both heaven and hell in a vision. The important part was his description of heaven's populace as having light brown curly hair, milky white skin, and generally being beautiful. It seems to me that forcing a homogeneous skin color upon those who don't want it would be less than ideal, but I suppose not even god can please everybody...oh wait. My point to this post is that it seems like a bad idea to strip away part of who you were on earth for no good reason. If there is a single person deserving of heaven alive who does not wish to have milky white skin in heaven, then heaven becomes fractally imperfect. It would appear that either:

(a)heaven is imperfect
(b)those who don't wish to be milky white/have curly brown hair aren't accepted into heaven
(c)God removes your free will at the door of heaven
(d)There were sections of heaven that peter didn't see, perhaps a white heaven, and...never mind that sounds silly
(e)this story was contrived by a man living in the epitome of religious dogma and barbarism, and knew it would probably benefit his religion in the broad sense.

I personally lean towards e, but to each his own I suppose.

Woman: you are wonderfully egotistical idiots

2008-08-22T09:03:00.003-04:00

This post is a response to this article, at least the bottom of it.

I did not lie at my wedding to say that I would love my wife for ever to "save face" when possum mom did.

Possum momma already explained WHY she married her first husband, a reason I can understand because my wonderful Christian mother did the exact same thing, with my father(I suppose this puts me in the shoes of P1, or P2). Providing the stories parallel as I see them, neither of these two women get married to "save face" as it was so eloquently put. It was more along the lines of trying to ensure the happiness of one's children, giving the child(ren?) in question a father figure, and trying to encourage the aforementioned father to be more responsible. I'm just kidding, the two women in question are so blindly stupid and egotistical that they would in fact get married just to save their own appearance to the people around them...

The hoax and danger of atheism exposed part 4

2008-08-20T02:59:00.002-04:00

Since this is the final part, I think I should sum up my opinion on the video as well as why I'm doing it. A was link to this video by a friend, who said that due to the video, he could never be an atheist(I'm sure it was meant as, "due to what the video says").I saw the first five minutes of it, and decided to write a rebuttal.

However, I won't be finishing it. This series depresses me, and I haven't blogged about many other topics that I wanted to blog about because I felt an obligation to finish this one. I'm afraid I can't finish it. I apologize Simon, for not being able to finish it for you.

Maybe now I can go back to actually blogging.

The hoax and danger of atheism exposed - rebuttal part 3 of 4

2008-08-12T07:30:00.002-04:00

part one
part two

I've been away from blogger for about a week, but never mind that, I just want to finish this series:

the start of part three, they go back to mentioning abiogenisis in conjunction with darwins founding of evolution. Anyone getting the feeling that this video isn't about "the hoax and danger of atheism" and is more about "ololololol darwin is wrong, tat mean tat all athiest is wrong rofl!1"? Next they make an argument I've heard from Kent Hovind before: "animals can only change so much...", and like Kent Hovind, they give no soluble explanation for why they couldn't. Next argument, no new genetic information can be added to living things, the response is simple... down syndrome. People with down syndrome have 27 chromosomes instead of 26, the extra chromosome adds data which produces a different type of human being. Next the video says that artificial genetic mutation with information always produces harmful effects, this is true. The only reason this is true however, is because by increasing information, they mean adding a large block of unknown DNA into the genome. These blocks almost always fail because there are 26 other blocks that work together in a very specific way to make a specific thing, and a 27th random block who tries to work with those fine tuned blocks. permanently increasing information would have to happen by the 27th block being only slightly positive, with no real drawbacks.

After more abiogenesis=Darwinism comparisons, we move on to "complexity=design". This of course, assumes that a)a designer must be complex and b)we need a god to explain things that lack a reason behind them....
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
oh...my...god..."today western scientists, particularly in the united states reject Darwinism in favor of intelligent design"...oh really? That isn't what our school books say, nor is it what the national academy of scientists say. Intelligent design is laughed at in most scientific communities, as it isn't a real scientific theory, it's religious and philosophic at best. They say that this is proof that god created all living things, this is getting too silly. I have a feeling that I shall have to call poe's law on them by the end of this movie.

Next they move on to Frued's atheistic psychology, and the depression it inspired. All I have to say is... scream was NOT made because of Fruedian psychology, the piece was actually composed as a representation of fears of the world when we are helpless, the red sky depicting a volcano eruption. They point out that religion is a fundamental of health as a way of completely discrediting frued, as frued was anti-religion.I'm afraid they are wrong on both counts. Religion isn't a fundamental of health(look at lance Armstrong!) and discrediting one idea of a persons doesn't render all of their ideas useless, I didn't stop with this video at the first minute did I?

Next attack atheism= communism... where in the hell do people keep getting this idea? Communism discourages religion highly, but that doesn't make it atheistic. Atheism didn't cause people to want to abolish religion, ideals of perfect order did. Joesph Stalin didn't kill people because he was an atheist, he didn't kill people for his mustache, he killed them for control.

nope, I still can't call poe's law...yet.

The hoax and danger of atheism exposed - rebuttal part 2 of 4

2008-08-08T21:56:00.008-04:00

For part 1, click this link. These posts are responses to saint birgitta's "the danger and hoax of atheism exposed" part 2.

The next part of the video claims that the idea "that the universe has no purpose has collapsed in a most striking manner". However, they provide no reasoning behind stating it. Next they say that the universe had been set up in a sensitive manner, as to permit human life. This would be abundantly true...if earth were the only planet in the universe. Let's say that chances of a planet sustaining life are 1/1,000,000,000. Now if the universe only had 1 planet, than chances of it being capable of supporting life would be one in one billion, or nearly scientifically impossible. But, what if that universe has 90,000,000,000 planets? then the probability of having a planet with life would be [1,000,000,000/90,000,000,000=0.01r] a 99.98r% chance of a planet having life. In our universe ninety million would be considered a drop in the bucket compared to the actual planets, and chances of earth being the only planet with life are statistically impossible.

Next they talk about the sensitivity of the big bang, noting that if the big bang's initial expansion rate had varied more than 1/1,000,000,000,000,000,000 that the universe would either collapse in on its self again before it got to the point it's at today, or become completely scatter shot and useless. I'd like to note why planets stars and dust exist, it was because of density variations in parts of the big bang, but these differences stretched a span of .000000002 . These denser areas became more dense over time, attracting matter from less dense areas, until some areas had no density, and some areas had a very high amount. The areas with no density are space, and planets are those which are considerably more dense. Variations did happen, and make are universe what it is today. On a side note: they are holding god accurate to 1/1,000,000,000,000,000,000 shouldn't god be able to be perfect, he shouldn't need ANY margin of error...

The video then points back to the improbability of earth holding life. I point back to the 99.98r% calculation, we aren't talking about a universe with one planet, we are talking about an almost infinite amount, earth was just the lucky one. Then they make the mistake of claiming that water was adjusted for life to exist. I'm sorry, but life actually had to adapt to the water, and many animals can't swim, and drown in the water.

Next they equate the anthropic principal with design, I don't even know how that's possible.The anthropic principal deals with the limitedness of having the perspective living humans on earth, not anything involving design. Afterwards, another stab at atheism by giving it strawman fundamentals, glad to see that the folks at SB actually spent time discussing these arguments with real atheists first.

Now the fun part, they try to tackle evolution [they accept the big bang, but not evolution...odd.] in a most level-headed fashion. They immediately call evolution false, then show their brilliance once again by implying that all atheists believe in evolution. Of course, they make no case against it other than "it's wrong and atheists believed it", but if that's how you form your opinions, tally ho. Then they said the most obvious and boldfaced lie yet, "not one transitional fossil species, that might prove Darwin's theory was found". I'm afraid that wikipedia disagrees. Next they say that the Cambrian explosion disproves evolution, but they don't explain why. The Cambrian explosion is actually an interesting phenomena with a plethora of theoretical causes, just check wikipedia.

That's all for today, it's getting a bit late. Farewell, young padawan.

The hoax and danger of atheism exposed- rebuttal part 1 of 4

2008-08-08T01:07:00.003-04:00

I'm watching the film The hoax and danger of atheism exposed in 4 parts, and will respond to each part seperately.

We start at the beginning, where they play a bit of eerie music and make claims of atheism booming in the 18th century due to people like Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud(Godfather of human psychology? That bastard!). This is only partly true, as atheism was a steadily growing trend ever since the British started to cover eastern America. What did develop well in the 18th century was non-theistic ideas and philosophies, like those of Freud.

Next they bring up Charles Darwin in a two minute rant that completely misrepresents him. For those who don't know, Darwin was originally a god believing man who wanted to be an animal trapper, but life around animals on the Galapagos islands led to a snowball of knowledge effect that changed both his religious views, and preferred profession. They also mix up evolution and abiogenesis, saying that Darwin believed that life came from inanimate(which by the way, a tree is inanimate, it doesn't ever move.)objects. After that they call natural selection a deception, which is something that even Kent Hovind will admit happens. Natural selection is the mechanism in mature that makes the humans of today taller than the humans taller than those who signed the declaration of independence in 1776. Over the last 230 years, men and woman who were taller were more likely to find a sexual partner, and therefore pass those height genes on to their children. We are on average 3" taller than the men of the 1760's due to natural selection via mating.

Next they say atheism is a world view, which is about as true as saying that not being suicidal is a world view. Not believing in bigfoot isn't a world view, and neither is not believing in a god...[I'm only 2 minutes and 20 seconds in and already have this much written, they are actually achieving about a 90% lie rate right now, that takes skill...]

next, they say that atheists believe that the universe has no purpose, and existed forever. I'm sure you could piss off many spiritual people because you want to pigeonhole atheists as people who believe like I do. After a stint of horrid music they claim that Darwinism collapsed with scientific advances, which is a bold faced lie. Thanks to archaeologists, Darwinism becomes more supported each and every day. After that they do more world view pigeon-holing, no need to even rebut it. Next they use a quote from a Christian book to prove it. Just because someone says something doesn't make it true, if he has no evidence than his opinion is almost worthless.

Then they tear down their strawman about the universe existing forever due to big bang theory. Even if they did believe the universe existed forever in the 19th century, are you saying that being wrong and changing your mind is a bad thing? Good thing that the preachers of the 2nd century never preached about the bible supporting a flat earth theory...oh wait, never mind. Also, they said that the big bang had infinite gravity and zero volume at the beginning. This is impossible to to the laws of physics. the singularity had to have an almost infinitely small amount of volume, and an almost infinitely large amount of density. Afterwards they continue to say that atheists refused to accept the big bang theory. I think that you will find however, that atheists are far more likely to accept the idea of the big bang than most Christians. Then they said what I had predicted, they said god created the big bang. This of course would ruin the 7 day creation story of the christians, muslims, and jews, but being this video is an attack on atheism, I doubt that they care.

Oh come on, why does it have to be in my state?

2008-08-05T13:40:00.003-04:00

There are four states in the US famous for members of their respective publics attempting to do illegal things in the name of religion. Those states are Kansas, Texas, Florida, and Ohio. Ohio's biggest issue happens to be the few dozen asshat science teachers we have that teach creationism. (un?)Fortunately though, most students don't seem to care either way, they just memorize the answers, write them down on the paper, and move to the next assignment. An event that has happened recently though, crossed the line...by about 20 frelling miles. John Freshwater was preaching Christian creationism in his science classroom(we have religious elective classes, why preach in a science class? It's a bit illegal ya know...), but worse than that, he was burning crosses into the arms of his students with an electric flow device. Yes, he actually applied a burning piece of metal to the skin of children between the ages of 12-15.

Oh wait, he says he didn't do it, and people from all over central Ohio believed him, and was given a standing ovation by a crowd of over 500 that had gathered to see him speak. Other than the burn marks, this would appear to be a he said, she said story then, ne? It's too bad that footage of this taking place was available, at least for john.

So let's see, he:

--Taught a subject that has been shown to be religious in nature, and therefore a violation of the student's 1st amendment rights
--physically burned his students with a school owned device, in the shape of a religious symbol
--Lied to a crowd of his supporters, people who still claim that he is innocent

He doesn't just need fired, he needs to be barred from any job where he has a captive audience of anyone who is under 18...

Here is the news story about it.

Blessed be the name of our lord!

2008-08-01T19:04:00.002-04:00

Today something miraculous happened. This is no feeble attempt at pot-stirring, or a joke. It is PROOF that there is someone in the sky looking down at us. If anything will convince you atheists (which I was until 5 hours ago) it is this. It all started this morning:

I was talking to my friend matt via WLM, and he told me that he recently started to play castle wolfenstein again. I decided it sounded fun, so I downloaded it, and installed it. I started it up, but got an ()openGL error in the ET command prompt. I tried again, and it failed. I went online to see what the problem was, and it turns out that some people have fixed it by adding _GL drivers. I tried that, but nothing happened. I restarted my computer, nothing happened. Next I deleted a .dll from my win32 folder, nothing. Finally I installed the driver updates for my intel graphics card, but still no luck getting it to work. I was frustrated out of my mind, and wanting it to work so badly, I made a half satirical prayer for the stupid game to work, and then I restarted my computer. I click on the wolfenstein shortcut, and it worked! If any of you doubt that this happened, I can send you my computer's text log. I still don't agree with all the religious teachings, but at last I can finally say I truly believe! To all you atheists out there, ignore those religious people who tell you that your prayer must be fully honest, and please just TRY. If you pray to the flying spaghetti monster like I did, I'm sure he will answer your call. If he answers the call of a hard nosed skeptic like me, he can convince ANYONE.

~RAmen, my prayers are with you
-Enshoku

banning atheism, how is it even possible?

2008-07-30T11:09:00.002-04:00

Birmingham(the city) has done something a bit unlawful recently. The city council actually banned any websites containing atheism. Though to be fair, we were once again lumped in with the wiccans and satanists(atheist rituals of sacrificing Christians to our god darwin, maybe?) and anything related to voodoo ritualism( drinking a man's blood and eating his body, anyone?). This is completely illegal, and had it been Christianity that was singled out, this ordinance would have been shot down faster than Barack Obama while hunting with Dick Cheney. While Birmingham may not be in the US, they still have religious freedom laws to abide by. In the UK, what applies to one religion must apply to all, otherwise it's discriminatory. One of the claims of the city council who passed this was that child protection is one of the reasons behind it. That statement is very telling. What are they hiding their children from, alternate opinions? With Europe being 25% atheistic, I suppose they determined technological suppression of information was needed, due to lack of social suppression?

No matter what the reason, this is illegal suppression of information, with no real justification.

sexuality: comparing Japan and America

2008-07-27T07:20:00.003-04:00

Divulging from my usual rants involving science and religion, I'd like to talk about a subject that interests science, and pisses off religion. Sex is a primal feature which has the purpose of reproduction. Unfortunately (or maybe not) sex also carries with it an amazing pleasure, which makes peoples position on it very, very muddled. Sex brings feelings of happiness, and closeness between the two people. These three things, pleasure, happiness, and emotional bonding are what make sex such a hot topic, without them it would only be a process for making babies, and therefore abortion, condoms, etc. would not be issues.

In America!:

America is amazingly conservative on issues pertaining to sex, even within liberal groups. For instance, in the video game genre there is an almost zero sex policy, and the media plays a big part in this. Factual inaccuracy's like describing an 8 second sex scene that was 70% black screen as "the most realistic sex ever depicted" is a bit ridiculous, but it also helped out mass effects sales instead of discouraging it. It's something most Americans hate to talk about(because it's viewed as sick and depraved conversation), yet also enjoy performing the act(see paragraph one). Many people also fear that talking about it will encourage children to do it, or if they see commercials with those pretty swimsuit beer ladies. As far as the commercial goes, it may actually affect your child, but only if you don't bother to talk with them about it out of fear.

Sex in America has it's biggest detractor in the media. With issues like teen pregnancy, planned parenting, and abortion so up front in the news, sex has become railed against by the media due to underage sex. Many news companies will give good advice, such as tips on how to explain the birds and the bees to your child. It also reports bad advice such as teaching religious abstinence(fox news) witch tends to be a bit fear mongering, as well as lacking any serious mention of "if you do use protection". Abstinence only programs aren't nearly as efficient as abstinence, and contraceptive teachings, but many people fear that giving the children the "if you do" will only encourage them.

Japan:

Japan is super liberal as far as sex goes, as flaunts it to the world without a care. Mature bookstores are common, even selling such books at the airport. Sex billboards hang high on the street of tokyo, the legal age of adulthood is 17, and sexual products are fairly common in general stores. The big twist to this however, is that many of the younger japanese people are completley abstaining from sex(10 bucks says it's cause of fap fap fap). It's actually because of the younger people coming to a conclusion that america has long since known: Men are lazy asshats, and women are way too emotionally frelling complicated and annoying(remind you of anyone's comedy skit, yep about 95% of them). Men and women are generally tired of the work and complication it takes to build a traditional relationship between two people.

Why are things so polarized in America and japan? Why is japan ranked dead last in average sex per person with it's hyper sexual environment, compared to America's (Pardon the pun) sterile environment(also #1 country for average sex per person)? It's because of the environments. Japan is a culture that is very open to sex, and men and women can get their fix without the hassle, so population is starting to rapidly decay. America is hush-hush about sex, even going as far as not telling the kids about the positives and negatives, and ways to prevent some of the negatives if they choose to engage in it, America is facing an overpopulation crisis. Sex is quite a tricky topic, in'nit?

also, the life to death rate in japan is 1.32:2.08 or 33/52. For every 33 people people born, 52 die...Yikes!

FISA bill, please go die now

2008-07-26T15:01:00.003-04:00

This is a post about the recent FISA(Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) bill that would basically say "well... ya know the government may've committed a real illegal act by tappin our cellophones and such, but if they hadn't did it the terrists would have won". Even if the government found anything (they didn't, though they sure scared the hell out of a few locals around here. He was Muslim, Arabian and... does he need to be anything else to be a confirmed terrorist?) it would still be illegal. Imagine what our founding fathers would say if they were alive today, alienating our fourth amendment with no consequence. The companies who allowed it should be punished, those who monitored phones should be punished, and above all it should be those in charge of the bloody program that should have consequences to pay(that means you George).

The worst part of this bill is that both presidential candidates support it. No surprise from the wife cunt calling McCain, but Obama made a VERY stupid choice. He supports this bill, alienating almost half his vocal supporters, yet gaining nothing in return. If he personally feels that they should not be punished, fine. If he wants donations from his supporters, he may want to reconsider his choices, as this has brought him one step closer to McCain's level, but with hypocrisy.

It happened: the crackergate finally burst open

2008-07-24T17:09:00.003-04:00

Errk, I promised I wouldn't post anything about the crackergate, stupid PZ myers, and all his cracker mongering...

PZ myers website has exploded with comments, over 1300 in less than an hour. He is getting more comments a minutes than my blog has ever gotten. It's growing so rapidly that the scienceblogs server is tittering toward a DDoS. PZ myers has broken the internet, but how? He committed an insipidous act, one that will make the bravest of men curl up into a ball and start sucking their thumbs. He...
...
...
...
...
...
...
... threw a cracker in the trash.

Not just any cracker mind you, a catholic jesus cracker. Death threats, petitions to fire him, and public damnation has led up to this epic event. Currently there are people trying to overload his server and stop people from viewing his website. Isn't attempting to do this more wrong then throwing away a cracker that was mailed to him? PZ myers is in effect taking away dumbo's magic feather, while the attempted DDoS attempts by the catholic spammers is more comparative to archaic book burning as censorship. I think his message that nothing is sacred was probably the most important part of this, as he did throw away three things:
1) the cracker
2) pages from the qur'an
3) pages from the god delusion

Given that the god delusion was written by PZ's friend richard dawkins, I think his point couldn't be clearer. Nothing should be sacred, if I have a belief that rapists should be given palaces and made above the law that doesn't mean it should be followed, even if denying me the right to see rapists get palace's makes me feel wronged. If one religion can be said to be not sacred then they all can, otherwise I'm afraid your bias is showing.

why don't christians baptise their children, then kill them?

2008-07-24T02:15:00.004-04:00

I'm responding to a post by questioneverything in sean the blogonaut's comments. He wrote:

Soooo….I have a question, and I’m sure it will offend just about everyone!

If a christian parent really loved their children, I mean really, really, selflessly loved their children, wouldn’t they want their children to get into heaven? wouldn’t this become the number one priority over anything else?

Why do christian parents not get their children baptized, then murder them? would this not ensure that your children would go to heaven?

If I’m wrong about this, and the child must “accept jesus” first, then why do you not raise your children to that age, get them to fully accept jesus, then murder them so they have no more chance to sin and be cast into the fire and brimstone?

Granted, you would be damning yourself by commiting murder, but would god not forgive you because you are willingly sending yourself to hell, sacrificing yourself in parallel to his son, to ensure another gets into heaven? Isn’t this sacrifice to save another’s soul the most noble thing you could do as a christian? If it is immoral, if the christian commiting the murder was sinning, how would that sin rub off on the victim? They would not be to blame, they would be an innocent, and one faithful to jesus at that!

Why do christians not convert people and kill them? Why not, say, get the entire mass of an Amazon jungle tribe, or some African family tribes, get them all to accept jesus, then slaughter them? would this not assure the new convert’s acendance to heaven? Would this not save the deceased? would this not be more moral than trying to manage people’s faith, knowing that they could lose it and (Gasp! Horror!) become an atheist like me? Aren’t you christians supposed to be saving everyone you can? Don’t you have a moral imperitive from the bible to save others?

Are you christians just to scared to commit youselves to hell to save your own children? Are you too selfish? Or maybe…do you have a bit, just a little, mind you, of doubt?

Please, feel free to point out any and all flaws in my logic.

-Q

First off I must say, I think you need spell check or else your writing may start looking like no possum zone's. Now to get on with the ranting:

We do indeed have cases of people (mostly woman) killing their children to send them up to god. However the courts didn't believe that it was god who told these people to kill their children, and they are almost always charged with being clinically insane. Also when looking into forced baptisms on a huge scale, we look at 3rd to 9th century Christians, who baptized the jews forcibly, burnt jewish books, and forced them to attend sermons (well, they also had the choice of testing out the Christian armies rapiers and falchions, but I'd rather attend the speech personally) and also committed many genocides against the jews(including the holocausts, the jews have been the victims of genocide at least 4 times, with another attempt made that failed). This is why Judaism is less popular than Christianity(Christianity is actually a more flawed religion from a logical standpoint), and why the middle east hates Christians.

On to the next point, why isn't it commonplace?
a) people aren't that nuts: Most people have enough logic to be able to think "hmm, taking away another human life is wrong even if it would help them later". The newest common form of saving a child is indoctrinating him with religion at a young age, as to make him safe from hell yet still seem sane.
b) parental instincts: From an evolutionary standpoint, humans have a parental instinct to keep their child alive, it propagates the species. In order to kill your child, you have to fight this urge on top of everything else it takes to kill your child. The reason this gene is so strong is because animals who don't fight hard to keep their kids alive end up with dead kids, meaning no more passing on bad-parent genes.
c) ignorance is bliss: The ten commandment say thou shalt not kill, without knowing anything more than that about killing in the bible, a Christian can't kill their child without a constant fear of eternal damnation.
d) selfishness: Killing ones child will land them in jail. The human selfish gene will further work to prevent this, as no one wants to be locked up behind bars for being a baby killer.

so, to kill your child you would have to be a selfless, intelligent, insane person with bad parental genes. Good luck finding a Christian with all those traits...

The next part ill address is why not mass murder tribal Christians today? The secular world (including many liberal Christians) would look at you as a sick bastard, evil, scum. Here is a position where pascal's wager can actually be useful.

what if christianity is wrong?
what if hinduism was right?
what if islam is right?
what if judism is right?
what if rastafarism is right?
what if pastafarism is right?
what if wicca is right?
what if astrology is right?
what if paganism is right?
what if norse mythology is right?
what if Egyptian mythology is right?
what if there is no god(s)?

well then, I'm afraid you've fucked those tribal peoples over quite well, old chap. What it basically comes down to is society won't let you kill people, and neither will your biological instincts. The holy book hasn't changed, our society has just changed how one should interpret it. The bible is no better than the Qu'ran when wanting to justify child murder, but our society kicks the hell out of middle eastern society (our society has teh uber logic missles called the secular hoomanists and teh ACLU).

Feed starving children in africa, and get angry while doing it

2008-07-23T11:05:00.003-04:00

Humanist mama made a post about freerice.com on her blog. I played this javascript game, and did fairly well. I must say I was much more driven by the need to get a high rice count, and beat my old best level than I was to actually children the starving child(ren) who may have died without my massive clicking of words. Yes, I know I am an evil godless monster, but it's too impersonal.

I got 666Φ grains of rice. I commented on humanist mommas website saying I would get at least 300, and I kinda beat the minimum...a factor of 22.2. I do however think the questions need to be rethought, adding 4 times the current question pool. Of course this would allow for better scaling, allowing more rice to be made due to the fact that new questions would hold one's interest. I should also mention that in the higher levels, missing four questions in a row can make one really, angry. Overall it is a brilliant idea, and I thank humanist mama for posting the topic.

(note: I am not posting an ad link for it on my blog, it's green, and isn't sexy at all. If they make a water art or cartoony styled ad in orange, I'll reconsider...)

very...odd...dream...

2008-07-21T20:49:00.001-04:00

I had the most odd dream ever...

I was asleep, and had just regained consciousness. I was apparently talking with a young female about something, but I didn't like. I feigned friendship with her for a bit and she took me to her house. It was my grandmother's house, except it was filled with a new family. I saw my great grandmother conversing on the couch with another older woman. after a moment my grandmother turned to me and said "Are you going to tell your family that you are a believer of Christianity?". I turn to her and said "homo say wha?" and everyone in the room started to laugh. I then had a flashback to the (fictional) night before, where I was reading a bunch of papers, one involving something about rastafarism. I ran upstairs to my room (my room isn't in my grandma's house so...yeah) and found the papers laying on my bed. I came to the conclusion that all this was real and the papers must have messed up the sense of reality in my brain when I was unconscious. Then my mom walked in my room and gave me some fall out boy posters. I told her to give them to someone else, I don't want pictures of an emo band.

After that I woke up. I bet at least one person upon hearing my dream will claim it was a divine epiphany. All I can say is that is was frelling annoying, but no where near as bad as the nightmares I had as a child. I would always dream I was in some random place hiding, or playing, or running and I would ALWAYS get seen and inevitably eaten by a crocodile. One time I was even in a pure white mansion walking down the stairs, and I saw under the stairs was a passage to a marshlands. I took off and hid behind a table. This of course didn't help me because I knew that crocodile can smell their pray, so my own knowledge got me killed.

Dreams with just enough logic to make you angry, afraid, or sad, but not enough logic to allow you to think critically or realize it's a dream are annoying...

Laplace's Demon (basic quantum theory)

2008-07-19T17:36:00.003-04:00

Today I wish to write my thoughts about Laplace's demon. Laplace's demon was the name of a concept by Pierre-Simon Laplace, and was not named so until after his death. Laplace's demon is a theoretical device that could predict everything back to the big bang, and everything forward to the heat death of the universe. It would do so by mapping out every particle in the universe in a freeze frame picture, collecting the objects speed and direction as well. With this image in a deterministic universe, one could continue to follow the particles patterns, detecting very collision and speed and direction change in the universe, which on the large scale would show future wars, the extinction of humans, etc.

The problem with Laplace's demon is that it only works in a deterministic universe. In a universe of chance (indeterminism) this is impossible. An indeterministic universe is a universe in which specific particles have a chance of doing something. Even if it is only a single particle in the entire universe, that has a 0.0000000000314% chance of vanishing per step it is still indeterministic until that particle is removed.

Laplace's demon cannot work in an indeterministic universe, or at least it's skill to predict things would be severely limited by particles with random attributes. In our universe we happen to have these particles, they are called radioactively decaying particles. These particles existence would still make Laplace's demon a plausible tool, but one would have to black out all the possible things that could happen to the random particles, which would give Laplace's demon less than 100 years of foresight. This is due to the cosmic radiation that is abundant to our universe having the possibility of having particles decay in such a manner that the physics cause the entire group to beeline for my house. Is it likely? No. Is it possible at an astronomically small number? Of course.

To round off this post I'd just like to say Einstein was wrong, god does indeed play dice, and they happen to be radioactive.

spookity ghosties

2008-07-17T09:58:00.005-04:00

On youtube, a hackjob "paranormal expert" is spamming videos with comments on how to easily show a ghost, and I took the liberty of following his instructions.

Many people through the years have often asked me: How do I see a ghost? I will share with you the most effective way to do so. Take a candle and light it in front of a mirror. Watch the shadow of the flame in the mirror. At this time if your home is in fact inhabited by a ghost or another entity that figure will appear in the mirror. This is very frightening and dangerous. If you are not ready to accept the fact that your home may be haunted please do not try this. Please use caution and do not try this alone.

I did this, in the bathroom. Also, I think it's a good idea to point out that a flame doesn't have a shadow, just like a light bulb doesn't have a shadow. A light source can't give off a shadow with out other light sources, and even then a candle flame would only have a droplet of a shadow. I would also like to point out that I did do this alone, if some nasty critter grabbed me then the world would spin on it's heels as a possibly legitimate claim of the paranormal came forth. I did it, and waited about 5 minutes, with no results. Figuring that this claim was based on dust, smoke, or mist like almost all paranormal "ghost" claims, I took the brush from a cosmetic blush kit, and shook a bit of the dust downward in front of the mirror, near the candle(not in the candle, hot clay particles falling onto my hand does not sound pleasant). It made a sort of temporary quasi-spirit I guess, though it didn't resemble anything except the odd sorta shape you get when you throw dust into the air while looking at it parallel to the sun.

His experiment failed, in this instance. If this is proof positive that my house is spector-free, then I'll have to tell my mom she was wrong about the demons being in the house...oh, and just one question... how does wax burning at over 50C, and refined quartz with an aluminum tinter(depends on the mirror) magically find ghosties, what makes quartz, carbon, and a bit of aluminum with a large water base any better than a contraption made of C2O3, CH4O2, and solid mercury(by the way, I wouldn't suggest playing around with the quicksilver or the monoxide...)? Sorry, just had to ask a silly question, though I'm sure the answer could be even more silly.

Legend of zelda, twilight princess... I think the zelda series has lost it's charm

2008-07-14T18:15:00.004-04:00

When I think of legend of zelda, I think of an epic explorable world, with many places physically blocked off, but not visually so, teasing you and causing you to wonder what lies within. It also gives image to a strong cast of characters, and exotic locations, characters with feelings and secrets that aren't always noticeable until you do, overhear, or give them something, but most of all I think of a very fun game. The legend of zelda, the twilight princess seemed kind of dull to me. It's hard to explain, all the pieces were there(except my frelling ocarina, or at least a conductor's baton) but they just seemed boring. Collect tears, do a dungeon, find person A, find items A,B,C, buy item Z, follow scent Q, repeat.

The mastersword isn't even wow worthy in this game, you get it way too early and it's reach is only a bit longer than the ordan blade, and not much more punch to it either. The musical scale didn't impress me, it has the same charm that playing ocarina of time for the second time does, actually a second ocarina of time is a good comparison of this game. More serious storyline and graphical art, most of the npc's seemed sad or downtrodden, most of the majora's mask npc's seemed happier than the TP cast...at 12 hours before the moon killed everything. I did find the beginning of twilight princess fun, fishing, and shooting birds at monkeys, and running away from bees, but I guess it started losing it's zeal right around the time I was wolfified.

Combat was another thing that bugged me, as all enemies were either logically impossible(at that moment) to beat, or far to easy. side jump, roll, up-slash, repeat could kill almost any normal enemy including the armored ones, it was cake to do. Some of the dungeons were just as predictable and I beat them without even paying attention to them, just listening to one of george carlin's e-books as I methodically killed everything in the room, looted it and moved on. I never even stopped listening when I came to the bosses, just found their weaknesses, dodged whatever move was thrown at me, and wiped them out.

Now that I think about it the lackluster quality of this game seems to be from two things:
1. It is bleak, and mildly depressing in both story and graphics
2. It is ridiculously mindless and easy at times

I love the legend of zelda series, but I ain't loving this game. At the risk of feeding trolls and summons level 87 fanboys who will kill me and pervert my corpse I say this:

Twilight princess isn't my game, it can go die in a pit with adventure of link for all I care, brawl isn't melee 2.0, but twilight princess is ocarina of time 1.01 .

temae baka, what in the world is wrong with you?

2008-07-10T01:15:00.003-04:00

Yes, I am indeed responding to a response of possum momma's post about her four children, which was the most interesting post she's yet to write in my opinion. I suppose that goes for no possum zone(here after referred to as npz) too because of his two posts, he really made clear clear his love for the momma possum. Here is original post by npz:

Mrs. Possum did it again. Just when I thought she couldn't be any more liberal she admits that its family bed time in their home. Just read this like she wrote it.

Time for what's good for the gander.
I was pretty young with my first pregnancy (20) and went to Church (like the
good little Catholic I was) to talk to a priest about my feelings. I was scared
shitless. And, he played me like a Stradivarius by telling me how adopting my
child to an "upstanding Catholic family" would please God. He said, "Either
marry or put the baby up for adoption through Catholic services."Talk about your
false dichotomy! In case you haven't noticed, P1 has turned out better than
fine.
O ho ho. Who is she to talk about morals when she opened her knees to Tom, Dick, and Harry? Abstinence works every time. What did she expect the church to say to her with that problem.

A priest said "Parents! Your duty is not to cater to the child's needs.
Your job is to bring them to the Lord with humble hearts and innocence.
Attempting to create, with them, a more loving relationship than the one
theyhave with their Creator is wrong." - Priest

I agree I agree I agree. Amen. It looks like she only thinks it is good advice if it promotes her selfworship problem.

This "Catholic Mommy" gasped when she turned to see my feeding P3. Pdad had
taken off his suit coat wrapped it around us AND I had a nursing dress on (the
kind with vertical slits in the top to allow access to the boob without pulling
your top off). It's a tit!! A breast. A boob. A mammary gland.

Not a shock. Now she thinks exposing herself is fine. Why don't we all go to church naked and disrespect our brothers and sisters who go to church to glorify Him. She could go outside to breastfeed. No no no she makes a scene.

Was her God responsible for making the distance from baby's eyes to mommy's eyes
the clearest distance an infant can see? I don't think God did it. But, if you
claim God is responsible for creating us, you have to include breasts ad
breastfeeding...or did those come from Satan?
SEE she does believe in God.

It's no wonder this generation is spoilt rotten. Pmom says don't let them cry. Don't raise a voice or speak. Eat whenever you want because the baby controls you. Sleep together like hippies.

Let's start with the statement "Just when I thought she couldn't be any more liberal". Liberal is an insult now? To mean what, evil, godless heathens(oh wait, that's atheism)? Besides that, me thinks using an ad hominem as your first resort shows the slippery slope we are on.

O ho ho. Who is she to talk about morals when she opened her knees to Tom, Dick, and Harry? Abstinence works every time. What did she expect the church to say to her with that problem.

Indeed, my aunt(nurse) says this often. I will say this statement as many times as needed because it is very important though: abstinence only education leads to MORE babies than abstinence and protected sex teachings. That reason alone is why almost no public schools have legal right(I think there are 7 states where it's up to the schools) to teach abstinence only. Teaching a kid that if he has sex, he should put a piece of rubber over his prick unless he wants a baby isn't going to make a big difference in whether or not the kid will have sex. Teaching abstinence only is stupid, and so is teaching protection only.

Would you have a problem with a girl who was married, and popping out babies every nine months, and ruining her own life, running herself ragged trying to take care of 9 kids while pregnant??? Would you tell her to stop, trying to dissuade her from "being fruitful and multiplying"? As a matter of fact, all parent's in the ghetto's, hood's, street's, slum's, and alley's need to be critically informed that they should be fruitful and multiply. That would be a very sad sight, if everyone in the world adhered to it, so I must say that I would much prefer an entire population of non married sexually active protected people than married sexually active non protected people. One of those groups would severely frell over the human race, and marriage plays little part in it.

I agree I agree I agree. Amen. It looks like she only thinks it is good advice if it promotes her selfworship problem.

A) It's self worship, not selfworship. Personally I practice elf worship. Spelling errors make it annoying to type on Firefox(which demands that it's name be capitalized, or it too annoys me).
B) self worship is another cheap ad hominem, you have anything else?

Not a shock. Now she thinks exposing herself is fine. Why don't we all go to church naked and disrespect our brothers and sisters who go to church to glorify Him. She could go outside to breastfeed. No no no she makes a scene.

The woman didn't see Pmomma's breast, she could only see that the baby had it's head up against it's mothers shirt, and the babies face, as well as the breast were concealed by a jacket, not exactly the same as walking up to the parish and ripping your boobies out right next to the priest.

SEE she does believe in God.

It's no wonder this generation is spoilt rotten. Pmom says don't let them cry. Don't raise a voice or speak. Eat whenever you want because the baby controls you. Sleep together like hippies.

As for the she does believe in god, it's called playing the devil's advocate, a phrase which frustrates me to no end by the confusion it causes, by the way.

Ad hominem on parents who let children sleep with them.
Ad hominem on Pmomma's family.
Ad hominem on hippies.

you really like personal attacks, don't you? How would you like it if someone did that to you, you... stinky meanie head! Pmomma does indeed say don't let your babies cry, in a round about way. If babies do attempt to cry themselves to sleep, while rocking back and forth in a futile attempt at self comfort, and it does have negative side effects on the child later, I'm afraid I have to say... stop the frelling baby from crying! Babies, like wild animals are afraid of loud noises, it is preferable to not expose the baby to them, but hearing mom shout "holy frell" when she slams her hands in the car door, or similar shouty things are inevitable. Scaring the baby isn't like depriving it of what it needs, one is a knee jerk response, the other is a biological imperative to help the baby survive.

Sleeping with parents is an extremely big issue, my brother did it until he was 5, and he is now mentally retarded, blind, crippled, dyslexic, deaf, and mexican. This is not a "hippie" parent thing, it's a fear of being detached from other humans from the child, and all my brothers and sisters slept with my mother for a relatively longer time than normal. Any obvious harm in it that I'm missing please point out, for instance if people who slept with their parent's over the age of two were 1200% more likely to kill their eldest brother I am interested, please inform me.

random religious and philosophical studies one may find interesting

2008-07-08T01:36:00.002-04:00

All of these were polled from a random internet sample group a size of 500~600, the questions revolve around morality, philosophy and religion. Many are interesting:

Is atheism a blind faith:
27% yes it is a blind faith
21% I believe it involves some faith
52% Atheism has nothing to due with faith

I'm actually pleasantly surprised, over 50% was a far cry from what I imagined.

If god had a gender it would more likely be:
67% male
33% female

Seriously, 1/3 people think that a woman would fuck the universe up as badly as it is, what the frell..

Does the bible go against homosexuals who marry:
51% yes
49% no

wow, it's about 50/50, which is odd considering that we are talking about the greatest book ever written... The biblical argument agianst gay marriage is nil, but the biblical argument for killing the fag bastards(plz no be angry gayz, i is jst kiddinz) is quite valid.

In general, you are more likely to trust:
32% a religious leader
68% an atheist

I don't believe this... the public won't vote for an atheist but they trust them more then the priests...oh wait I trust christopher hitchens more than I trust the priests, this study had to be rigged...

(funny one)Do feminists want equality with men or superiority?
51% equality
49% superiority

I gotta go with the 49% on this, because most feminists try to have thier cake and eat it too. They want to get treated like a woman in some respects, expecting people to be more sensitive towards how they feel, and wish to get paid the same as males. It's not the pay part I take issue with, it's the fact these women want to treated special in the workplace, as far as you should be more sensitive to sue than you are to joe, as sue happens to have one more x chromosome than joe...

(this is not philosophical, i don't care who says so)Which is the greater threat to American civil liberties?
38% liberal left(what commie bastards we are)
62% conservative right

I honestly just hope this says something about the '08 elections, after bush's second term this poll does not surprise me.

Do you think some people want the US to be a theocracy?
Yes, many people 25%
Some 59%
No, very few 16%

I disapprove of how this question was phrased, I wish it was do YOU want this country to be a theocracy, that would be nice information. I lie somewhere between yes-and some.

there are quite a few more, but it's a bit late so I'll end this post, though I may continue posting them later.

New annoyance: goverment conspriacy theorists

2008-07-05T22:13:00.003-04:00

As of late many Conspiracy theories of all sorts have been brought to my attention, via many people of the quasi post-modernist persuasion. Most of the ideas of government conspiracies are similar. The government is completely controlled by an organization(s), voting is an illusion of choice, the government silences those who don't co-operate, etc. To be frank, most of these conspiracy theories are almost as silly as believing that everyone in the government does what they do for the good of everyone, not just for self benefit... The term sheeple is also being used in a derogative manner to describe people who don't agree with them, claiming that these people are sheep who need to do research. When all I found were questionable theories and useless information, I was told that all of the search engines are paid by the government to shush up. I continued to question the conspiracy theory and was eventually accused of being part of the conspiracy,what...in...the...frell... at this point I remembered that the Atheist experience did an almost exact parallel discussion in their conspiracy theories show(first episode of 2008 in the archives).

deciding to play around a bit, I posted a message saying that I was my sister, and that I(the real me) was killed by the government. Nobody bought it, which I found strange(not really) so I asked why. Two different reasons shot up,
a) I'm not important enough to kill for anything.
b) My death would arouse too much attention.
At this point I just sent them a link to the aforementioned AE show and left that forum, to go to my blog. Now here I am, casting my spell(I have on a +15% cast sucsess shirt) to turn you all into brainless sheeple for even longer. DANCE SHEEP PUPPETS, DANCE!

I'm going to hell, but I'll have the last laugh

2008-07-01T02:05:00.002-04:00

This post is a response to all the christian haters on youtube, leaving the disturbing evangelical comments on the videos on of George Carlin:

disturbing comment: v1, godidit

"I wonder if he believes in God now...he he he...I guess God showed him Who is boss! God have mercy on his unbelieving soul. BELIEVE IN GOD'S POWER."

God is a lazy ass man, then. Taking out a comedian in his seventies who really needed to retire, one who did 100 shows a year all around the US. If I believed in a god every time a 71 year old man who worked himself too hard died, I'd have to start making gods up...

disturbing comment: v2, ph3ar my ub3r 1337 PHIRE

"I'm sorry for him but he doesn't understand what he's talking about.

May he rest in piece as he burns in hell. :)"

Such a nice boy, smiling while saying that an old man whom said some things HE can't understand (entropy for instance is one of them, I'll bet) is going to burn in hell forever, but at least he made no attempts to evangelize...

disturbing comment v3, George Carlin, the christian!!!

oh, the sad thing that gets me...is that I know he love God and believed in him so much and that is where he derived his comedy about God. George was such a great comedian, he cracks me up. He brought the message of God and all the other things we feel so conflicted of into his comedy routines and that's why it's so funny, because it's hard to find an explanation...I will miss him. Thank you God for such a funny man.

We are talking about the same man who calls himself an entropist, bashed creationism, had a segment called religion is bullshit, admits atheism, has partly nihilistic beliefs, pointed out the stupidity of most of the ten commandments, admits to having done drugs, and...commits blasphemy?!?!?!?!?!?!

disturbing comment v4, the whole reason I started this post

Ole George Carlin is finding about it now! I feel sorry for him, but he made his bed, and now he aint talking to a laughing audience!
Carlin never had a clue what it is all about from listening to him! If you are reading this, you still have a chance to avoid Carlins fate! Do it!

a)of course george has a laughing audience, read the apocalypse of peter(gnostic). Can you imagine anything funnier than a comedian being held up in the air by his tongue trying to tell jokes?
b)The end of this post is what makes me hate it so much, it's a huge argument from fear that takes advantage of a DEATH. This kind of stuff is common during funerals as well. Playing off the fear of someone, especially when they feel at any kind of loss, like many did with carlin, is frelling wrong. You are only using the death of a human as a means to an end, a tool of sorts. Playing off peoples fears and emotions is very cult-like, not exactly a good way to act when trying to convert people. Don't use the dead as a conversion tool, by playing off of other's fears, please...

not part of george carlin, but an interesting discussion:

Waga2Taga
I agree with jericho360. "God" had nothing to do with our lives. If "God" makes everything, why did he create the handicapped? Wouldn't he create us all equal? And why does every country have different numbers of "God given rights"?
RubyWraith
what an ignorant, stupid dumass. where did you ever get the idea that people aren't created equal? you absolute moron. you have no business being allowed to use a computer. you should be sedated and sent to bed with your voodoo doll.

my rebuttal; Not all people are created equal, some are born retarded, athsmatic, deaf, crippled, limbless, and not at all. Not everyone is created equal, that's the type of universe a god might make. Tics, fleas, and bumblebees all had their lyme disease/ability to bounce 120 times the size of themselves, and a sucker mouth with sharp teeth/poison and a stinger before the fall? I bet the stinger was for digging, and the poison was for... umm... uhh... making nail polish for eve or something?

In response to michelle at possum momma's blog

2008-06-26T23:00:00.004-04:00

This post is a response to a post by the user michelle at Possum Momma's blog.

"Anyway, last week, while laying on my bathroom floor because I couldn't wake Pdaddy up to help me get to bed, I had this momentary, fleeting thought that "I wish I could pray to stop this pain.
The Lord spoke to you, pm!! He spoke to your heart. This need to pray is good since it proves you have no lost the holy spirit. He will not forsake you even when you've foresaken him. Don't fight the feeling to pray. What can it hurt to follow that impulse? He may not take the pain as we all need pain to be healthy but I know in my heart that he would relieve suffering.

Yeah. It caught me off guard. I don't know where, other than pure pain, it came from.
This is the blessing we have been praying you would receive. Every night we gather and ask god to grant your heart the light of his heavenly plan. Your desire to pray came from the heart. Your heart is the only part of your body who keeps the spirit for times like these. You can ask him to love on you. If he uses pain to get you to come back to Him he will and He has. Glory be to Him.
It is now your turn to accept Him.

I never prayed from relief from pain or illness even when I was a believer.
That means you never believed in the power of the One and Almighty. Catholicism was what wronged you. That is why you are an atheist. It is why you struggle now. Catholics put up spiritual road blocks but you don't need an intercessory to ask God to come in and fill your soul. Please do not let this chance to know our loving Father pass."

Possum momma's backquotes are in bold, and Michelle's are plaintext.

My first problem with michelle's post is that it seems to take advantage of a person whom is in a bad situation, as an attempt to proselytize. Christianity is the only one of the top three religions(or four if the atheist/secular humanist/agnostic/nonreligious category actually counts as a religion) that does "out of the gutter conversions". These conversions tend to be easier than a Lithuanian prostitute, and cheaper as well. I have little doubt that michelle's argument failed to convince possum momma, but to someone who is poorly read it isn't so.
There is a good side to these types of conversions, one that my mother could attest to more than any other. It gives people hope, and allows them to bear bear the pain and suffering of their existence because they think they have a guardian angel of sorts watching over them who is helping them though it. Middle class evangelical people have a sincere wish to bring the lower class people to jesus, and hope is a big factor. The issue with giving these people this hope is that tends to be a double edged sword, religion on one end, and the hope on the other. Once these people muster up the courage to go to a church, they will probably like it, and come back(unless it's a pentecostal church, I've seen young ladies making a rather hasty exit one the legions start being exorcised). Tithing is followed in a short stead, as well as a bunch of other things that are harmful to humans, such as following church doctrine. I suppose my point is that you don't need to give hope via religion, and it's a underhanded way to get converts.

My next problem is the idea the all the prayer's of the Christians who want god to touch Pmomma's heart had their prayers answered, by giving a woman with a weak immune sytem, with a perma-strep throat...giving her kidney stones. If that is how Yahweh(YHWH) works, then not only does he work in mysterious ways, but also FRELLING EVIL ways. If this was the work of a god then he can go hell, and preferably not come back.

My last problem is her slander of the catholic chruch. Most christians criticize catholics for the wrong reasons(though anything that connects priests and alter boys probably is safe to be used as cannon fodder.), they follow the same doctrine as michelle, the difference is they have a centralized system of people who interpret it, as well as have groups of philosophers, scientists, and educational leaders all under their thumb. I suppose one''s view of it depends on which denomination you are most familiar with, the Pentecostals see the catholics as pope worshipers, and the catholics see the Pentecostals as being demonic, go figure...

In closing I would just like to say that michelle's post frelled me off because it was such a huge appeal to adverse consequences. The question is "what are those consequences?"(besides suffering of course, that much is obvious)

legion: We...are...many...

informal discussion over theism, atheism, reality, and god

2008-06-24T19:50:00.004-04:00

Today I participated in a crossfire with a person who goes by the username jeff on the Christian chat network. The topic varied quite a bit throughout our discussion and overall jeff was a very nice person. the discussion went as follows:

Jeff> so what part does you mom play in the ministry
Enshoku> so jeff, what constitutes belief for you
Jeff> what do you mean
Enshoku> she sees the demons, or something like that
Enshoku> why do you believe
Jeff> ok..moving right along
Jeff> If you read Christian Smith's book
Jeff> Moral believing Animals
* Kathe is now known as Katz-cookin
Jeff> He is a sociologists
Jeff> He argues that what seperates us from other "animals"
Enshoku> coughfrellingEVILmoneyextortingreligioncough
Jeff> is that we all have the capacity to believe
Jeff> we all are looking for a guding narrative
Enshoku> jeff, other than our ingtellect, and all that follows that nothing differs us from the animals
Jeff> so I guess my answer to you is ... to believe is to be human
Enshoku> so I am inhuman?
Jeff> believing is as human as breathing
Enshoku> in what terms
Jeff> you believe in what you can know through you senses
Jeff> you believe in science as a way of knowing
Enshoku> then by that logic, don't animals belive
Jeff> you believe that science has the answers
Jeff> you are essentially "a believer"
Jeff> when is the last time you saw an animal having a theological debate
Jeff> other than a human
Jeff> we are meaning makers
Jeff> we construct knowledge
Jeff> thats what believers do
Jeff> we need to believe
Enshoku> a)stop putting words in my mouth, b)a bear's beliefs may not be as complicated as yours, but it wouldn't go to the river if it didn't believe there were fish and water there
Jeff> does a bear think about justice
Jeff> or about being inhumane to fish
Enshoku> do primitive fishers?
Jeff> does a bear think about if there is an afterlife or not
Jeff> off course if they are infact "human"
Jeff> they may conceptualize in a different way
Jeff> but they do
Jeff> throughout human history --culture has existed
Enshoku> you stated that that belief=human. now you are getting into specifics, define human more accuratley please
Jeff> what is culture---its the way we construct and create meaning about the existing world
Enshoku> culture-a groups beliefs and way of life
Jeff> I said exactly what I meant
Jeff> exactly
Jeff> think about the way we eat and dress
Jeff> there are alternatives to that right
Enshoku> by that definition though a school of fish has a culture
Jeff> think about what we define as good or bad
Jeff> there are alternative right
Enshoku> now you are diving into free will
Jeff> school of fish have instinct
Jeff> did your instinct tell you to get up and put on clothes this morning
Enshoku> who says I'm wearing clothes?
Jeff> or you culture ( the way of life you have adopted that gives you meaning)
Jeff> are you not? BE HONEST?
Enshoku> just pants, and I had those on from last night
Jeff> Exactly
* Guest48286 (JavaUser@rrcs-70-62-171-233.central.biz.rr.com) has joined #Topix
Enshoku> so if a bear put on a pair of pants it would be human?
* Guest48286 (JavaUser@rrcs-70-62-171-233.central.biz.rr.com) has left #Topix
Jeff> if a bear had the ability to judge himself based upon the perception of others then he would be human
* TakashiYuza (JavaUser@rrcs-70-62-171-233.central.biz.rr.com) has joined #Topix
Enshoku> so terry shivo was not human?
* maryann (JavaUser@24.152.211.192.res-cmts.eph.ptd.net) has joined #Topix
* maryann (JavaUser@24.152.211.192.res-cmts.eph.ptd.net) Quit (QUIT: User exited)
Jeff> ask her parents and those who cared about her if she was human
Jeff> they had the ability to attribute meaning to the social interaction they had with terri
Enshoku> no, I'm not asking for thier definitions of human, i want yours
Jeff> they defined her as daughter, sister, wife
Jeff> to them she was very human
Jeff> to medical doctors who defined her as an object..it might be questionable
Enshoku> but according to you what they say doesn't matter, as much as your ability to reflect on what they say, vegetable people can't reflect
* rainwood (JavaUser@ool-18ba8b9e.dyn.optonline.net) has joined #Topix
Jeff> I beg to differ..she still had her senses..she still had the ability to feel and experience pain
* maryann (JavaUser@24.152.211.192.res-cmts.eph.ptd.net) has joined #Topix
Enshoku> she felt pain, but could she understand it?
Jeff> have you ever heard of howard gardner
Jeff> he is and educational theories
Enshoku> no
Jeff> He argues that there are many ways of knowing
Jeff> there are things that you know in your body that you have not fully been able to articulate
Enshoku> I argue that there is no way of know, in an absolute sense
Jeff> so your pursuit of knowlege is in vain
Jeff> why are you in college again?
Enshoku> as is your belief in a deity
Jeff> oh never mind just to get a job
Enshoku> believing in a god that you can't know exists is faced under the same dilemma
Jeff> so you are a child of the postmodern age
Jeff> we can't know anything
Jeff> because everything is relative right?
Enshoku> oh my no, post modernists make my keyboard bleed. no knowledge is absolute for sure though
Jeff> you are of the same breed..."no knowledge is absolute"
Jeff> you just word it differently
Enshoku> can you name an absolute?
Jeff> God
Jeff> Jesus
Jeff> The Word of God
Enshoku> I know you'd say that, have you watched the matrix?
Jeff> No, thank goodness
* TakashiYuza slaps nobody in particular around with a large trout!
Enshoku> well in the matrix, most people are brains in a jar being fed memories though a computer
TakashiYuza> matrix was bad but had a good point
Enshoku> how do you know you arent?
* sunnylady (me@adsl-76-248-70-68.dsl.bltnin.sbcglobal.net) has joined #Topix
Jeff> Well I would do that say most people are brain in a jar being fed vain philosophies that teach them that they are a god
Jeff> makes of there own destiny
Enshoku> fair enough, but you didn't answer my question
Jeff> controlling there own lives...when that are robots
Jeff> that is my answer
Enshoku> how do you know you arent a brain in a jar trapped a 10000000 meter room with the rest of the human race, and we are all being controlled?
Jeff> We are being controlled
Jeff> its called mass media
Jeff> its called politics
Jeff> its called halo 3
Jeff> it's called mass education
Jeff> its called Religion
Enshoku> how do you know that they exist in reality, and aren't figments of our imagination being fed to us
TakashiYuza> ha religion ha
Jeff> Yes, I don't believe in Religion
Jeff> It is an imitation
Jeff> I believe you need to stop watching movies
Jeff> (smile)
rainwood> Hey guys I got a record hit I-tunes today Michael Rainwood unknown author check it out God Bless
Jeff> Your brain is trapped in sci-fi world
Enshoku> A religion is a set of beliefs and practices generally held by a human community, concerning a god
Enshoku> you don't believe that exists?
Jeff> Exactly
Jeff> I believe it exists and it acts as an imitation of the truth
Jeff> Religon oppresses
Enshoku> isn't that equivalent to saying "I don't think the mcdonalds corparation exists"?
Jeff> Religion Controls
TakashiYuza> controls what
Jeff> Yes it does, because we all agree that it does
Enshoku> how can it if it doesn't rxist?
Jeff> Because we agree that is exist
Jeff> you agree that you should be clothed--whether its true or not
TakashiYuza> we talking bout mcyds or "god"
Jeff> because you agree you help to uphold this reality
Enshoku> what reality?
Jeff> The reality that states that we should were clothing in public
Jeff> or at all
Enshoku> that has nothing to do with reality, as much as society
Jeff> Exaclty---symbolic interactionism
Jeff> which is a sociological theory
Jeff> says that society is nothing other than the reality we construct in our everday interactions
Jeff> there use to be a reality that said women should stay at home and cook
Enshoku> we don't construct society
Jeff> that reality was challenged
Jeff> know we seen women in different roles
Jeff> there used to be a reality that stated black were 3/5 human
Enshoku> it has been constructed, we change society, not reality
* maryann (JavaUser@24.152.211.192.res-cmts.eph.ptd.net) Quit (QUIT: User exited)
Jeff> that reality was
Jeff> black should be treated as such
Enshoku> reality-what is real
Enshoku> most of your statements refer to society
Enshoku> A society is a grouping of individuals, which is characterized by common interest and may have distinctive culture and institutions
Jeff> you consciouness and the way you view (reality) is very much shaped by the society in which you are part of
Jeff> nice textbook definition
Enshoku> your reality is not the same as anyone else, what are you getting at
TakashiYuza> jeff just give up your faceing a very determand atheist
* EnshokuYuza slaps TakashiYuza around a bit with a large trout
TakashiYuza> y slap me
Jeff> your reality( the possibility that we are brains in the jar) was shaped by society(mass media produced movie called the matrix)
* sunnylady Celebrates by Tossing Confetti all round the room4" '~`*+,. 3`*`'" ~ :, 9, ~ ' " -;. 11, : ' ` ` * 12- _ + ^ : 13,, .+ * ^ * - ,14.:" '~`*+,. 15`*`'" ~ :, 6, ~ ' " -;. 7, : ' ` ` * 8- _ + ^ : 9,, . + * ^ * - , 10.:" '~`*+,. 11`*`'" ~ :,12_ + ^ : 13,, .+ * ^ * - , 14.:" '~`*+,. 15`*`'" ~ :, 4, ~ ' " -;. 3, : '" '~`*+,. 2`*`'" ~ :, 9, ~ ' " -;. 6, : ' ` ` * 5- _ + ^ : 4 ,, .+ * ^ * - , 10.:" '~`*+,. >>
Enshoku> fair enough, I shall come up with a new more euphemistic example
Jeff> whatever suits you---
* Guest51914 (IceChat7@pool-71-98-223-33.tampfl.dsl-w.verizon.net) has joined #Topix
* TakashiYuza slaps EnshokuYuza around with a large trout!
* TakashiYuza is really very bored.
TakashiYuza> by u people bore me
* TakashiYuza (JavaUser@rrcs-70-62-171-233.central.biz.rr.com) Quit (QUIT: User exited)
* Guest51914 is now known as cantstandzya
Jeff> you think of anything
Enshoku> there really is a god, and he does not affect the universe in any way, except deciving those who believe in him, no one believes in him... does he exist, and does he interact with people?
Jeff> What movie did you get this one from?
Enshoku> no movie
Jeff> You came up with this on your own?
Enshoku> yes, and I realize it's horrid, but bear with me
Jeff> is there more to this sci-fi movie that you are creating?
Jeff> continue
Enshoku> just those two hypothetical questions i asked you, for now
nova> heya cant
cantstandzya> hi nova
Enshoku> why not?
Jeff> I sorry but I define those questions as hyPATHETIC.... I really can't bring myself to engage them
Enshoku> why?
* maryann (JavaUser@24.152.211.192.res-cmts.eph.ptd.net) has joined #Topix
Jeff> God was not willed by humans....He does not exist on the whims of humanity..He is the creator of Humanity
Jeff> His existence is not based upon humans belief or non-belief
nova> you know really
Enshoku> what of every other god but yours, are they willed by humans?
nova> some athiests god could tand right in front of them show them un deniable proof of who he is
Jeff> There is but one God
Jeff> One True God
nova> and they would still go yeh well what ever i dont beleive you
* Rose (me@fctnts12d014.nbnet.nb.ca) has joined #Topix
Jeff> There are many gods
Enshoku> nova, if god showed me I would believe him, so why doesn't he?
Rose> what is the topic??
Jeff> Ask Him
maryann> I've wondered that too enshoku
Jeff> Are you ready for a visitation from the Lord
maryann> it would be so eaasy for him to show someone proof, but he doesn't
* Katz-cookin is now known as Kathe
Enshoku> jeff, if he appeared in my room right now, and said he was the god of the bible of couse i would believe
nova> some people have spoken directly with him all but face to face
Jeff> Are you ready for that?
Rose> would you?
nova> and then Enshoku it would be to late for you
Jeff> Remember when God shows up there is always repentance required
Enshoku> of course jeff, whether of not I'd worship the warmongering, blood loving god is another question
nova> you would not beleive by choice of yoru own free will
Enshoku> nova, see above statement
Jeff> Remember when Isaiah saw the GLory of God
nova> one little thing Enshoku and this will be the only ime its said
Jeff> He was made aware of his uncleaness
nova> your last comment is brdering on insult to christianity and christian alike
* Guest24872 (CCNET2001@operhost.christian-chat.net) has joined #Topix
Jeff> and then He worshiped God
nova> im not tolerant of insults
Jeff> nova can let Enshoku and I talk
Jeff> we were really having a greatg conversation
Enshoku> nova, if you may then, please ban jeff for constantly slandering me by putting words in my mouth
Jeff> Enshoku are you serious?
nova> ive been here for the entire convo Enshoku
Enshoku> I don't hold it aginst you at all jeff, though you did ignore me >.>
nova> ive seen you skirt the line at insults for most of that time
Jeff> Interesting...
Enshoku> calling one someone who denies with multiplicity irrationally is an insult to me
Guest24872> I tell ya what
Guest24872> don't like what one says
Guest24872> put the other on ignore
* Guest24872 (CCNET2001@operhost.christian-chat.net) Quit (QUIT: User exited)
Jeff> Hey enshoku what do you mean by that
Enshoku> besides, both statements about your god are true, he loves the smell of blood, and he's definetly helped start and finish quite a few wars
* Tink (CCNET2001@operhost.christian-chat.net) has joined #Topix
Enshoku> jeff, when you were preaching, the part I onjected to
Jeff> enshoku calm down
nova> and you just dont seem to get it Enshoku not supriseing
sunnylady> hey tink
Enshoku> I'm calm jeff
Tink> hi sunnylady
sunnylady> welcome :)
nova> heyas tink
Jeff> what part was that
nova> and heya sunnylady
Enshoku> when you were rambling about how my heart turned away from god or some odd rhetoric like that
sunnylady> oh hi nova my friend
* Retrieving #Topix modes...
Jeff> ok ...so by saying that what did I do
nova> heh seen another one of my friends from school
nova> yet another cop lol
nova> that makes like 6 of my friends from school days who are cops rofl
Enshoku> it wasn't that exact staement, it was saying that i vowed never to believe agian, and that disbelief is irrational hence the aformentioned claim
nova> 4 are fire fighters 2 ems lol
maryann> enshoku, do you follow any religion?
EnshokuYuza> nope
Jeff> disbelief is irrational ...because we all believe
sunnylady> byeyee
EnshokuYuza> as far as?
* sunnylady (me@adsl-76-248-70-68.dsl.bltnin.sbcglobal.net) Quit (QUIT: User exited)
Jeff> I think i made that point ...it is human to believe
Tink> EnshokuYuza or Enshoku remove one of your nicks
nova> Enshoku how about exiting ither mirc r java?
nova> lol
Tink> you choose or I will
nova> <<< was looking out the window as i typed that
* Enshoku (JavaUser@doc-24-32-212-54.sv.oh.cebridge.net) Quit (QUIT: User exited)
maryann> wow, people are so pushy in here
maryann> what's the reason for that?
Tink> maryann its a rule

The thing I object to most with Jeff is the fact that he stigmatizes rationality. Saying that there are other ways of thinking is true, but those ways of thinking are patently irrational. He also sticks to his idea that absolutes exist, and when asked for proof, I'm criticized for trusting and wanting evidence, but I suppose at the end of the day we share completely different mindsets. One which can't be disproved, and one which requires good argument and evidence. When it comes down to it I failed to do the logically impossible, and he failed to do the technically impossible, yet it was still a great discussion.

Evolution: Not JUST a Theory Anymore

2008-05-31T18:53:00.003-04:00

As of late more people seem to be learning about the theory of evolution. I would be happy about this, except for the fact that it's MISINFORMATION. I think a bit of quote mining is in order:

crazychristianguy777 :"Evoloution is simply a THEORY that scientists created to challenge creation."
-Poor Darwin, eh? Spending years alone on an island, and studying the lives and deaths of numerous animals just to be able to form the hypothesis of natural selection, which in turn took even more time to elaborate on... the man spent his entire life on some simple little argument just so people can have a counter argument against creation? If true, Darwin is super inefficient, because Ray comfort manages to spit out 20 logically flawed arguments a minute.

Bogzy1989:"evolution theory is pure imagination.the only evolution true is micro evolution."
-I bring to your attention to the killer bacteria that are immune to almost every kind of known antibiotic. This happens because of natural selection. They treat the viruses with an anti-biotic and let's say 98% of the viruses die. The other ones are strong enough to live though it, and slowly build up and immunity though the doctors attempting to treat the patient with the infection over and over. The bacteria and their offspring eventually become totally immune to death or any other negative effects through this drug. That IS evolution, and could be classified as macro evolution because the virus at the beginning is in essence another species, a species with it's own trait that makes it unique, a complete immunity to an anti-body.

williamholsey: news flash athiest. Your scientist are so smart that they can tell you what happened a "Million" years ago, they have said when the earth will end, yet they can't tell you where bin laden is. They couldn't even tell you that 9/11 was gonna happen and stop it. your scientist are about as smart as all of you who are on here giving your praise and worship to science. That's not very bright at all. Old asian saying. "There's always someone bigger than you" put that into your creation and think.
-This argument is an argumentum ad ignorantiam (also known as the argument from ignorance or argument from (personal) incredulity) it's a logical fallacy wherein the speaker claims that not knowing something can equate to not knowing another thing, for example: john doesn't know the Pythagorean theorem (a^2+b^2=c^2), therefore he does not know that 2+2=4, even though he says he does.

There are MANY misconceptions about evolution and natural selection, the most common objection I've heard to it is "I don't think man came from monkeys". I agree,I don't believe man came from monkeys either, as it is so eloquently put. This point is often over-emphasized, because human beings and most apes are all categorized in the category of hominidae. A group which includes homo sapiens(humans), the Pan troglodytes(chimpanzees), the entire gorilla genus, and the genus pongo(orangutans). Chimpanzees have 94-99.4% of our DNA, which is interesting, up to 99.4% of a humans make-up are identical to chimpanzee. This does not we've mean We've evolved from chimpanzees, only that we have a very common ancestor.
Another (very) common misconception is that evolution is JUST a theory. In science a theory is actually the second closest thing you can have to absolute knowledge, next to a law. The misconception comes in due to common language, because when you say "theory" you mean "idea". This is different in science, a theory is an idea that cannot be proven, only disproven, but has yet to be disproven. Saying that Evolution is JUST a theory is similar to saying gravity is JUST a theory, or that the existence of cells is JUST a theory. Most of the misunderstanding is the difference between common usage and scientific usage.

Since gravity is JUST a theory I'll have to leave you now, at least until I bolt my computer to the floor. Remember kids, all ballistics experts are stupid, because half of their work relies on a THEORY.

Alt.Atheism 15 biblical "facts"

2008-05-10T21:41:00.001-04:00

There are many types of folks on Alt.Atheism, many are christians. The christians who are there for more than a month tend to search the web for an apologetics article, copy and paste it to a news article, and run away. They jump from topic to topic, never looking back, many times having people answer commonly answered questions, wasting the person's time who is actually trying to help them understand in order to post more apologetics articles that get refuted, which they also ignore.
~If you ask a question on a forum or newsgroup, please be willing to respond with something, a "thank you" would be nice, but even a "I don't believe you, go fuck yourself with ray comfort's banana" is better than nothing. The reason for this is in certain situations, such as the proceeding one, you end up taking up 15 minutes for a person to respond, and end up with 75 responses. ~ 15*75/60= 18.75 ~ 18.75 Hours were taken up for a 5 minute copy and paste, quite a bit of time. I'm writing this article so that people can just google the answers instead of having to look them up, when they have responses already.

15 questions approved by the way of the master;

#1-Evidently your primitive education doesn't extend to the fact that it
was an ancient Greek, Democritus, who coined the term "atom". The
concept was even known in ancient India.

But it took science to reveal atoms, and even now, no one has directly
observed one with his or her own eyes.

This must prove you to be a hypocrite, since you, like that idiot
Gabriel, no doubt believe that evolution is disproven because there
are no ten million year old people who actually saw a large mammal
evolve from one species through sufficient generations to put it into
a different family from its ancestor.But the Bible makes no mention of atoms and since your "scientific
fact" does not even offer a reference, much less make a case for
atoms, this question needs no further attention.
-Budikka666

#2-That could have been worked out by anyone that looked at the numbers.
And anyway, if their daft religion had not required this butchering of
babies in the first place....
-Ye Old One

#3-State your evidence that Job dates to the fifteenth century before
Christ, please. In any case, the Babylonians at that time though
that the Earth floated on a vast subterranean ocean (the "waters
beneath the Earth" mentioned in Genesis 1). Job also speaks of the
Earth resting on "foundations" or "pillars;" it does not offer an
entirely consistent cosmology or geology.
-Steven J.

#4-A circle is not a
sphere, nor ball, nor oblate spheroid, nor egg shaped thing, nor
anything with a 3rd dimension, a circle is simply a circle. As for
Columbus, he was a navigator, and his interest was first piqued when
he noticed that ships appear on the horizon mast first, then the ship
slowly rises up, keying up Columbus as a super religious man is a bit
inaccurate, the conquistadors that followed in his footsteps were more
fit for that role.
-Enshoku

#5Radio waves are, in fact, a form of electromagnetic radiation, just as
visible light is. They travel at the speed of light because they are
a form of light. On the other hand, the use of light signals
reflected from mirrors (heliograph) dates back, like the idea of a
spherical Earth, to the fifth century BC, and signal fires are older
than that. That God might use lightning to send signals is not that
great a stretch of imagination.

However, the figure of speech in Job is not about using electricity to
communicate, but about the ability to command lightning bolts as
though they were human soldiers, reporting for duty and carrying out
orders.
-Steven J.

#6-If you can demonstrate that the Bible writers knew that the speed of
light was 300,000km/sec, I'll start giving you a second look. But
when you're making up LIES, I have no reason to treat you as anything
other than a complete and gullible idiot.

"Way" here is not used to indicate speed, it's used to indicate
origin. In short, they're asking "Do you know where light comes from/
where light lives". They're not stating how fast it goes.
-Budikka666

#7-once again, simply contorting a metaphor. Though I'd like to accept
this article as true, because it would add an argument for many
science fiction novels with heavy uses of metaphors that were written
before we knew this, *goes to pray to the Martians of war of the
worlds*
-Enshoku

#8-Yep - an initial void. After that they got every other single thing
completely wrong.

I mean, seriously, do you really expect us to believe that the stars
were nailed to the roof of the Earth? Maybe they were glow-in-the-
dark stickers that you can buy at any novelty store? You know - those
*same* stars which will "fall to Earth" in the end times?

But guess what? You don't know your own Bible. Genesis absolutely
does *not* say that there was an initial void *before* a so-called big
bang, but that the Earth itself was void! And void here doesn't mean
nothing. It simply means that the Earth was in ruins. Furthermore,
it says the Earth was in darkness. It says the sun was created after
the Earth. These are LIES according to the best available scientific
evidence we have.
-Budikka666

#9-Good for Solomon. His findings have nothing to do with god.(additionally anyone with a piece of cloth can observe the winds.)
-Enshoku

#10-oblique reference where it seems to be taken out of context.
-Enshoku

#11-blood is not the source of life, oxygen is. Blood's purpose is to
transport oxygen all over the body to keep our body parts from rotting
off and dieing, but blood isn't whats allowing the cells to live, it's
oxygen. Humans are Complex and feeble creatures, death can be accomplished by a lack or too much of almost anything. Eat no salt or salty foods for a month then slit your wrist, you may die from bleeding because your blood does not clot...
-Enshoku

#12-Even if true, this would only describe one very messed up dinosaur.
The fact that it was a herbivore makes it's strong bones and heavy
size a bad thing, as was the plight of the paleiosaur, which almost
made up for that fact due to their huge necks. There are many kinds of
dinosaurs who are carnivores, would easily be swept away by rivers,
drank little, and had quick and flexible yet weak bones.
-Enshoku

#13-The Biblical laws concern ritual cleanliness; they have no reference
to germs (note that they don't actually mention germs; one might
suppose that if the authors had known of microscopic infectious
agents, they could have mentioned them). "Issues" of blood or other
fluids are not symptoms of every (or even many) infectious diseases.
-Steven J.

#14-Not necessarily, What I take from this is that god was warning the
people of the future that the bloody corporate scum would create
something called "3rd shift", who get paid a normal amount, but work
from dusk 'til dawn.///
You mean a spherical Earth; it would work equally well if the Earth
were illuminated by the sun orbiting a fixed Earth (as most Christians
believed until the 17th century or later, as the Bible itself
taught). But note that in the fourth century (when most educated
Christians were coming around to the view that the Earth was, in fact,
not a flat disk as Isaiah declared but a sphere as Pythagoras had
deduced), there was the theological "problem of the antipodes," the
question of whether there were, in fact, inhabited continents on the
other side of the spherical Earth. Overwhelmingly, early Christians
rejected the idea that there could be humans on the other side of the
Earth, so while there could be day and night at the same time, there
could not be people experiencing day and night at the same time.
Again, the early Christians clearly did not understand this passage as
you do.
-Enshoku
-Steven J.

15.The biblical "leprosy" appears to be some sort of fungus infection,
although it may be used for a variety of skin diseases. The
regulations for leprosy concern these diseases, not all infectious
diseases. Note, again, that nowhere does the Bible mention contagion
or infectious organisms; its concern in all these regulations is
ritual purity, not public hygeine. Oh, and only pneumonic plague is
directly contagious from person to person; flea-borne plague cannot be
caught simply by being around people who are sick with the plague.
Note that the Bible has no mention, either, of flea-borne infections.
-Steven J.

[note, all responses are from the first page of responses, as Alt.Atheism is being mean to me right now, and won't view other pages.

Yesterday's post from hell, what is love?

2008-05-03T03:47:00.003-04:00

I missed my blog post yesterday due to church, so I'm gonna do two today. This one is on love, which raises the question, what is love?

to blatantly quote wikipedia's starter on love;

"Love represents a range of human emotions and experiences related to the senses of affection and sexual attraction. The word love can refer to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes, ranging from generic pleasure to intense interpersonal attraction. This diversity of meanings, combined with the complexity of the feelings involved, makes love unusually difficult to consistently define, even compared to other emotional states."

Love is simply an emotion, like anger, happiness, and jealousy. It's purpose is to bring people together, to form bonds with a different level of strength than friendship. In that sense love is more than an emotion, but also a deeper form of friendship that holds a stronger bond within it. At what point does a friendship become love? At what point does any relationship become love? ...It's whenever you decide it's love. A man and a woman may meet each other, and to her it's love at first sight, but he doesn't feel he loves her until three years later with a baby in his lap, and a ring on his finger.
Why love? Once again, love is an emotion, that causes happiness, and bonds people. Love gives happiness, but may lead to future sadness, you choose whether you love or not, that risk of sadness can cause to much grief for some to take...

filler topic

2008-05-01T22:54:00.003-04:00

I have nothing to write about, so I present you with a filler topic/ short story I wrote.

Yesterday in the hickory city pentecostal church, a miracle happened. It is a common miracle, but that does not make it less wonderful. I was the new pastor for the church, a new character all together to the town. A young couple told me that today was the day that the old pastor agreed to baptize their baby, but with her sudden passing they asked if I could instead. After a single look at that young child waving her arms about so happily I knew I should, and I did. I had another person who knew the church well fetch a traditional basin, and I dipped the child in the water. When all preparations were made, I hoisted the baby up, and placed her in the water, the resulting sound of which was a large "splash" noise. Cold water dripped down my arms as I continued the ceremony. I just then awoke from my dream and looked at my clock and calender. It was time for my first day as minister, I wonder how it will go?

How to use tabs

2008-04-30T21:51:00.004-04:00

This is a guide for using tabs, it will work in any web browser that has tabs. despite that fact, I strongly recommend getting firefox. Hope this guide helps [this means you robin-sama!] those who need it!

--Tabbed browsing originated in mozilla firefox, and was then copied by internet explorer 7. It is a wonderful alternative to windowed browsing, which clogs up your taskbar at the bottom of your screen and causes a bit switch program lag. Tabbed browsing keeps different webpages within a single window of your web browser. It also has less lag when switching from tab to tab.
--To open a new tab press ctrl+T, or alternatively go to the top of your window and press "File>New Tab". You will now notice that there is a bar with your old webpage and your new webpage in it at the top of your screen. Try clicking each of the tabs. You will notice that you switch from one page to another, just as with windows. To open more windows press ctrl+T, and to close out of any chosen tab, click the "x" next to that tab on the tab bar.
--If you wish to edit your tabs options, go to the top of your web browser and press "tools>options>tabs" and edit at your leisure.

Hope this guide helped!

GIMP tutorial: making a new pattern

2008-04-29T19:05:00.002-04:00

Once again, a guide at Simon's request;

This guide will discuss how to make a simple, tiled pattern in GIMP 2. For those of you who have never used gimp before, or any art program, open it up, look confused, get frustrated, bang your head against the keyboard, say very profane things about gimp's designers, go to bed, then read the next step. Start by opening gimp, then click the bar on your taskbar that says "layers, channels, paths, undo". You should see a window with 8 tabs, 4 on the top, and 4 about 2/3 of the way down. Click the "patterns" tab, then right click any pattern and press "open pattern as image".
If you wish, completely erase the pattern in front of you. To do this go to the gimp toolbar, and click on the paint bucket icon. Click the dots below that says "fill whole selection", and "BG color fill". Click on your pattern image and it will turn completely white. After that do whatever you wish with it, but I chose to make a nice diagonal netting pattern by drawing a black line from the top left to bottom right, and another line from the bottom left to top right, forming a pefect x, and sexy pattern.
Once you have your pattern created go to : "file>save as..." and change the files name, but keep the file type, and press save. It will ask for for additional details, type whatever you'd like, and finish up. You now have your own new pattern in gimp!

Enshoku's general website guide

2008-04-28T12:17:00.003-04:00

Y halo dere pplz who reed meh blog(all two of you)! This topic was requested by psy-chan, who's webpage will make your eyes bleed goat's blood, just before they explode. So without further ado, let us begin.

Good website layouts are easy to look at, interesting, easy to look at, have a good font, easy to look at, matches colors well, and is easy to look at. By easy to look at I mean your eyes don't hurt from staring at it for more than 5 minutes at a time. This is caused by a bad text/background combo almost 80% of the time.
A white background will almost never garner a blindness, nor will a black one. Using an image as a background is generally a very BAD idea. An image that is 100x100 of less will work well because it tiles amazingly, but having a background that obviously does not mesh, a picture of someone, or something, or any picture that has a rainbow of colors or two opposite colors(ie: black & white). To be specific, pale colors (easter like colors, very bright, but not bold. It's like mixing the color you want with white to dull it out and more it more aesthetically pleasing.),bold-dark colors, and white.
As for good text colors, you can't beat black for pales and whites, and pale/white text colors for dark colors. The actual font and font size is very important. On average, try to use a font size of 12 to 18, though this may vary depending on the specific font you have in mind. As for the actual font you want something easily readable and soft on the eyes.

Good font's to use are:
Any type of Arial
Courier
New Times Roman (aka Times)
Verdana
Trebuchet

With the advice I've given so far, your webpage may end up looking rather stoic(rather like my blog actually), and you may want to add features to it. If you want to add videos to it, please make sure they don't auto load or auto play because many people may experience something called "head meets keyboard syndrome" in frustration from the sudden performance hit. The same goes for songs, auto-playing songs should either play at less than 20kb/s, or be midi files. WELL PLACED banners and pictures can liven up your webpage, but placing a picture of your kitten hitting the bottle in the middle of your webpage for no reason will only earn you facepalms. Try to keep pleasant distractions such as videos and picture off to the sides of your page.

[ha, isn't wasn't a guide on what to do at all, only what not to do! I win!]

Mary Sues

2008-04-27T18:42:00.003-04:00

In role playing a mary sue is a common name for a character who is in essence his author's pet. Mary sues tend to lack any noteworthy flaws, and having certain aspects of her creator, or that his creator would like to possess. God-modding and mary sues aren't actually synonymous, more than half of god-modders tend to be mary sues, but only a small percent of mary sues are god-modders. Mary sues also have a habit of hogging the spotlight during a fanfiction or role play.

"She's amazingly intelligent, outrageously beautiful, adored by all around her -- and absolutely detested by most reading her adventures. She's Mary Sue, the most reviled character type in media fan fiction" - Pat Pflieger

Now, having a mary sue isn't always a bad thing, and there are different levels of mary suedom. No-one wants to read about a perfect character who is sweet, charming, and never fails to accomplish her task. Let your character get tired, thirsty, hungry, show negative emotions, in other words - let it be human.

satanism: what it is, and what it isn't

2008-04-26T17:30:00.004-04:00

Satanists, the bane of all christians and society in general, right? They worship the dark lord satan, drink virgin's blood, and steal candy from babies. They opress christians, and attempt to make them worship satan.

Sadly, NONE of this is true, and more often than not a satanist doesn't believe in satan. Nontheistic or LaVeyian satanists completely deny the existence of satanism. Its teachings are based on individualism, social Darwinism, self-indulgence, and "eye for an eye" morality. Vengeance, self indulgence, independence, and finding one's true self. The reason it's referred to as satanism it's because it's seemingly the anti-thesis to many of Christianity's tenets, which cause one to lead a more guided and restricted guide than satanism does.

Below are the nine satanic statements, and eleven satanic rules of the earth.

Satan represents indulgence instead of abstinence!
Satan represents vital existence instead of spiritual pipe dreams!
Satan represents undefiled wisdom instead of hypocritical self-deceit!
Satan represents kindness to those who deserve it, instead of love wasted on ingrates!
Satan represents vengeance instead of turning the other cheek!
Satan represents responsibility to the responsible instead of concern for psychic vampires!
Satan represents man as just another animal, sometimes better, more often worse than those that walk on all-fours, who, because of his “divine spiritual and intellectual development,” has become the most vicious animal of all!
Satan represents all of the so-called sins, as they all lead to physical, mental, or emotional gratification!
Satan has been the best friend the Church has ever had, as He has kept it in business all these years!

Do not give opinions or advice unless you are asked.
Do not tell your troubles to others unless you are sure they want to hear them.
When in another’s lair, show them respect or else do not go there.
If a guest in your lair annoys you, treat them cruelly and without mercy.
Do not make sexual advances unless you are given the mating signal.
Do not take that which does not belong to you, unless it is a burden to the other person and they cry out to be relieved.
Acknowledge the power of magic if you have employed it successfully to obtain your desires. If you deny the power of magic after having called upon it with success, you will lose all you have obtained.
Do not complain about anything to which you need not subject yourself.
Do not harm little children.
Do not kill non-human animals unless you are attacked or for your food.
When walking in open territory, bother no one. If someone bothers you, ask them to stop. If they do not stop, destroy them.

[note: this article does not discuss theistic satanism, maybe next time.]

God Modding

2008-04-25T13:34:00.003-04:00

God-Modding is a term used in role-playing. God-Modding gives the character in question no limitations to his speed, power, people skills, or anything else, essentially making him as powerful as a god(hence the name god-modding). These people are most notable when their character has the ability to avoid/block/come out unscathed/counter every or nearly every attack thrown at him, while his fellow teammates take their hits and continue(or not depends on the character).
God-Modding tends to be annoying to the other role-players because the God-Modder in question is completely ignoring the rules, setting, and his own character's skills and personality as a means to an end. It would be akin to playing volleyball with a friend, only to have him pull the net down on his turn, spit on the ball, and flatten it. When it's your turn again the net goes back up and a new ball is given to you, quite fair, isn't it? God-Modding also bothers other role-players, because teamwork is important in role-playing, and the god modder is a one man team that out powers everyone in everything.

~signs of a god-modder

-he won't get hit by anything...ever
-he will have mary sue like qualities
-he often disregards their characters normal personality, and will be a totally different person when fighting, then when conferring with members of his team.
- In an RPC(role playing character) vs. RPC fight, he may severely injure the other's character without asking permission.
- Controlling another's character without the characters permission(this is specifically known as bunnying)

What to do about a god-modder:

1. Simply ask him to stop, and clearly point out what he is doing wrong, and what instead should be done.
2. Don't let him impose to much on himself, If he makes an rpc with a huge strength (can summon dark holes[wtf?!]) and a huge weakness(he is blind), you may find him disregarding the weakness too much, try and keep both his strengths and weaknesses within a reasonable range.
3. Ask him to sit and watch everyone else to play, it's a good way of learning how to play fairly.
4 If all else fails, simply ask him to leave.

counter apologetics: god commited murder

2008-04-24T19:31:00.008-04:00

This post is a response to this.

The problem I have with this article is that it claims that with reason, murder is justified, and even moral. The article also states that this is not murder. What justification did "god" have for the flood? If I killed a large group of people who were out raping,burning, stealing, and worshiping false gods would I be put in jail for life, or even killed. Of course I would, and god did the same thing to more people for lesser crimes. He even killed newly born and unborn babies. Those children had yet to be "corrupted" so even by the apologetics definition, GOD COMMITTED MURDER!

They could have said god does not have to obey his own commandments, but they didn't wish for him to seem to be hypocritical. Either he's a lawbreaker and murderer or he's a hypocrite and murderer, you decide!

(note: We apologize for the author's use of a false dichotomy, Enshoku ignored the very real possibility that god might in fact simply be dracula.)

Starting and using a bit torrent

2008-04-23T15:03:00.004-04:00

I'm writing this for the person who left the anonymous comment on my page. Hope everyone manages to understand this!

Before you do anything concerning bit torrents you will need a bit torrent client, or bit torrent opener to execute the torrent. My personal favorite is µtorrent, because of it's popularity which in turn gives it a larger community surrounding it and using it. Once you have your bit client installed, just visit a website like isohunt and find a torrent to download. Once you have your torrent downloaded simply double click on it and open it with your bit torrent client. Most bit torrent clients will then automatically start uploading and downloading packets for you at the default settings.
note: the rest of the following information has only been done in utorrent, if you are using a bit torrent client without this features then just ignore that specific part of the post.
parts of the torrent window:

a) the staus box: The box in the upper left hand corner of the utorrent program is called the status box, as it tells you the current status of your torrents. for example, mine says (all:3) (downloading: 1) (completed: 2) (active: 2) (inactive: 1). This means I currently have 3 torrents running, one of which is currently downloading information from others, two of which are completed, two of those three are active(uploading or downloading packets) and the other file is inactive(not uploading or downloading packets). This box mainly serves as a quick reference to see the combined status of all your torrents.

b) the torrents window: this is the box in the upper middle part of the window that contains the file names and % bars among other things. There are a few notable things I'd like to point out here.
size: the file you are downloading's full size, how much space the file will take up on your PC when finished downloading.
done: this shows a visual loading bar of what % of the file is downloaded, simple yet effective.
status: this will inform you whether the file in question is seeding file packets, downloading file packets, or stopped/inactive.
seeds/peers: tells you how many people you are downloading from (seeds) and uploading to (peers), obviously the more seeds there are the faster your torrent will go.
download/upload speed: This is how fast your download is currently being downloaded.
ETA: ETA stands for estimated time of arrival, this when utorrent predicts your file will be finished, this number changes with your download speed
ratio: your ratio is the number of packets uploaded divided by the number of packets downloaded, you should strive to get this to at least 2.000 so that you will have given back twice of that which you received, seeding(uploading packets) increases this number.

c) the tabs: the tabs take up the bottom right half of the screen, but none are really necessary for a novice user to know about except the "speed" tab. It shows a line graph of your download/upload speed, so if the green(download) line suddenly shoots downwards, something is amiss with the torrent, or your internet connection.

Hope this helped someone out!

Enshoku's general guide to bit torrent

2008-04-22T13:46:00.002-04:00

This topic was the entire reason I decided to make a blog, after finding that quite a few people on public torrent websites have no idea how or why it works. In a standard server to PC connection the server sends file packets to you at whatever set amount it chooses and you receive those directly. It's a simple point (a) to point (b) idea, and most files downloaded off of your web browser are of this format. Bit torrent is a more complex system where you obtain a torrent which in your torrenting program scans for other torrents that are an exact match of itself. Once these matches are found they transmit data packets to others and receive them as well. When you first start a torrent you have no data packets to give to others and are referred to as a "leecher" until you start uploading packets to other people(packets that you have that they don't). Once your download is done you are referred to as a "seeder", or one who uploads packets while having the complete file on his or her PC.

Why use bit torrent?

Depending on your ISP and the file you wish to download, bit torrent can be over 12x faster than HTML downloading, although under bad conditions the opposite can be true. Many files can only be found via bit torrent, and downloading the actual .tor file is incredibly easy, and in most cases automatic.

Is bit torrent illegal?

The short answer is no, and the long answer is "it depends". While bit torrent programs themselves are not illegal, there are a HUGE amount of illegal torrents out there, which has given bit torrent a less than admirable view in the eyes of most ISP's. Many ISP's have tried to cut their customers access to any file sharing programs. Even though the internet bit torrent community at large has protested this, the ISP's largely ignore pleas to stop throttling file sharing connections.

Proper bit torrent etiquette:

Enshoku says:
why don't you give back?
Enshoku says:
cuz i dont really care
Enshoku says:
what if others just didn't care, then you would have nothing...
matthew says:
.......................but they do so
Enshoku says:
that's a horrible way of looking at things, you need to share or else the torrent eventually dies, because of your lack of caring
matthew says:
then ill find another way

People like this are the reason I decided to write this article, The uncaring attitude of so many, with this exact same philosophy disturbs me. If all the seeds quit right now because "they didn't care" bit torrent as a whole would die, those who don't seed files are only taking advantage of another stranger's kindness. In every bit torrent program there is a ratio catagory, and a number written under that, such as .78240. This number means that you have uploaded 78.2% of what you have downloaded. Try to get the number to read something like 2.0861, which would mean that you have given back double the information you have taken. Those people you torrented to may not have been able to complete the file without you, but now they may seed to others, and those others may seed as well, until there are thousands of seeders, and people who wish to download the file get incredible speeds, thanks to a group effort.

-Have fun and happy torrenting
~Enshoku